Major League Baseball

Japanese Star Shohei Otani Injures Leg, Will Miss Six Weeks

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 3:22 p.m. ET

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Fansided, Andrew Schmid/FanSided via Call to the Pen

International star player Shohei Otani will miss six weeks with a strained thigh.

Shohei Otani of the Japanese Nokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters has taken a bit of a hit to his value. According to R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports, the star has strained his left thigh and will have to miss six weeks of action. This injury follows an ankle issue that caused him to miss the World Baseball Classic.

As the Associated Press reports, Otani hurt his leg while attempting to leg out an infield single. Instead of recording a base hit, he added more to the argument over whether or not he should be batting. Otani is both a pitcher and an outfielder and has drawn praise as being a Base Ruth-like player. Ruth famously succeeded as both an MLB batter and pitcher, although is more well-known for his work at the plate.

Due to how well-rounded he is, Otani is considered the best of all non-MLB baseball players. The 22-year-old took home the Most Valuable Player honors in the Pacific League last season with yet another stellar year. He batted in 104 games with 22 home runs and a .416 on-base percentage while simultaneously posting a 1.86 earned run average in 20 appearances as a starting pitcher.

Both Anderson and the Associated Press mentioned that Otani could be looking to move to the major leagues next season, and he would certainly be a prime target for many teams. It is quite rare to be able to add a top batter and pitcher in one player, hence the comparisons dating back over 100 years to Ruthian times.

With that being said, Otani's insistence on batting and pitching could cause troubles for some major-league executives. Very few MLB players both bat and pitch at an elite level. Since teams would likely be making a significant financial investment in the right-handed pitcher, they may wish to protect their pitcher by not allowing him to play in the outfield. This could cause issues given that Otani is reportedly going to insist on a guarantee that he will both pitch and hit.

Should Otani decide to move to the United States this upcoming year, he could find himself in a special situation. As MLB Trade Rumors' Jeff Todd noted yesterday, the new Collective Bargaining Agreement places new restrictions on international players. International teams will now only be able to demand a $20 million posting fee, and teams now have a hard cap on how much they can spend on players less than 25 years old. Since Otani will fall under that age, he will likely be more affordable than the typical elite free agent.

Given his nearly unheard of batting-pitching talent combination and relative financial bargain, Todd writes that the phenom could look for provisions that would allow him to reach free agency with fewer than six years of service time. Yoenis Cespedes received the same clause from the Oakland A's when he came to MLB.

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