It took all of three innings on opening day for Shohei Ohtani to steal his first base of the season.
Then, the Dodgers waited three weeks to watch him swipe one again.
It’s easily forgotten now, with Ohtani stealing bags on an almost nightly basis and padding a total that’s reached gaudy heights, but there was a time early this season his stole bases felt rare.
“I think there was a bit, for him, of feeling out the initial part of the season,” first base coach Clayton McCullough said. “New team. New kind of lineup. I think he just kind of eased his way in.”
After stealing his first base with the Dodgers’ in their South Korean season-opener on March 20, Ohtani played 15 more games before swiping his second. Four steals came in a six-game stretch from April 13-19. Then, there was another 10-game drought that wasn’t snapped until May 3, when Ohtani recorded his first two-steal effort of the year.
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This trend continued through the entire first half.
At the end of April, Ohtani’s five steals ranked just 25th in the majors.
At the end of May, he’d barely cracked the top 10 with 13 steals.
By the season’s midway point in late June, Ohtani’s stolen base total had only climbed to 16. Forget about the 40-40, 50-50 and (potentially) 60-60 milestones he has pursued this year.
At that point, it didn’t seem certain that 30-30 would even be achieved.
“I think there was a feeling out period,” McCullough said. “Like, ‘If I’m gonna go, I want to be safe.’”
But then, circumstances changed.
Mookie Betts’ broken hand thrust Ohtani into the leadoff spot of the batting order. And with a shorthanded lineup behind, his aggressiveness on the bases began to increase.
Suddenly, as if there was some turbo switch the $700 million star forgot to hit, or a self-imposed governor he decide to finally turn off, Ohtani’s base-stealing exploded, becoming his most unexpectedly dangerous attribute during a monstrous performance to close the season.
“I think that Shohei realized how good of a base-stealer he has become or can become,” manager Dave Roberts said.
“It seemed like in July and August, every time he got over [to first base], he went,” McCullough added. “And he was safe.”
Indeed, in 69 games going back to July 4, Ohtani has stolen 39 bases and been caught only twice. He hasn’t gone more than five games in that period without at least one steal. And entering Tuesday’s pivotal National League West showdown with the San Diego Padres, he’d recorded stolen bases in the team’s previous five games.
“He’s on a mission,” Roberts said. “It’s hard to imagine him being this focused ever before for this stretch of time.”
That latter point applies to Ohtani’s entire game at the moment.
He has all but assured himself of a third career MVP award, leading the National League in home runs (53), RBIs (123) and OPS (1.023) while ranking third in batting average (.301).
He just earned the most obvious NL Player of the Week award maybe ever, following a seven-game stretch that saw him go 16-for-32 with six home runs, 17 RBIs and a historic performance in Miami last Thursday in which he became the first player in MLB history to have 50 homers and 50 steals in the same season — with enough time remaining for a 60-60 season to remain narrowly possible, too.
And now, with the Dodgers having clinched a postseason berth and closing in on a NL West title, he’s gearing up for his first appearance in the MLB playoffs, soon to end an October wait that has lasted seven years and more than 850 career games.
“Since I’ve come to the United States,” Ohtani said in Japanese, “it’s the stage I’ve dreamed of.”
And one where his burgeoning base-stealing skillset should be on full display.
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“Postseason games are more important,” Ohtani added last week. “And if I can steal bases later, I think it will be good for the team.”
Entering this year, it was clear Ohtani would run more often. Unable to pitch while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, it was an easy way for him to boost his production on the offensive side.
In the spring, he began working with the club’s player performance and strength and conditioning staff on improving his quickness and refining his running stride. He mentioned to coaches his desire to steal more often, after eclipsing the 20-steal just mark twice in his first six MLB seasons with the Angels.
“He’s just so powerful, with strength and quickness,” Dodgers special assistant Ron Roenicke said before the season, mesmerized by Ohtani’s raw foot speed and explosivness. “I’m sure they see that in the NFL. But you don’t see that very often in baseball, not with that kind of speed and strength.”
What Ohtani had to add, however, was the cerebral component of knowing when to steal and how to time it.
McCullough was key in that process, delivering scouting reports on opposing pitchers’ tendencies to all Dodgers hitters before each series. As the season unfolded, Ohtani took particular interest in trying to identify such cues himself, sometimes reviewing video in the dugout with a stopwatch in hand.
“I think he likes the challenge of studying pitchers, learning the tendencies,” Roberts said. “I think that’s something that intrigues him.”
Still, it wasn’t until the second half of the season Ohtani truly started to step on the gas.
Ohtani has mentioned no specific impetus for the change, saying simply that when it comes to stealing bases, “the feeling is that if I can go, I go aggressively.”
Roberts and McCullough insisted there was no directive from the team, either.
“It wasn’t [us telling him] like, ‘Hey, you need to be more aggressive. You need to go,’” McCullough said.
Instead, the first-base coach noticed a gradual shift in Ohtani’s base-stealing mindset.
Whereas early in the year Ohtani seemed wary of getting thrown out — when Ohtani set his previous career-high of 26 steals in 2021, he was also caught stealing a major league most 10 times — he grew more aggressive by the second half of the season, coinciding with his move up to the leadoff spot following Betts’ hand injury.
“To me, he almost kind of got on a heater, like a hitter or a pitcher,” McCullough said. “You get in this run where you’re going and you’re safe and you’re feeling good about things, you got the rhythm of it, and it’s lining up.”
Soon, stolen bases started feeling like a given for Ohtani, whose average sprint speed ranks in the top-third of all major leaguers.
While he’s been picked off or thrown out on the base paths a handful of times in the course of live action, Ohtani hasn’t been caught on a stolen base attempt since July 23 — 55 games and 32 steals ago.
“In years past, watching him, I don’t think he was a great base stealer. I don’t think he got great jumps,” Roberts said. “But now when I watch him, especially from the third-base dugout at home, where I have a good visual of the pitcher and the runner, his jumps are on point.”
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He figures to give the Dodgers a different October dynamic as well, after they stole no bases in last year’s sweep to the Arizona Diamondbacks and were just two-for-three in their 2022 elimination to the San Diego Padres.
“I don’t think he’s prepared any differently,” McCullough said of Ohtani’s base stealing. “I think he’s just more self-assured now.”
And of course, there is slim but possible pursuit of a 60-60 season, with Ohtani entering Tuesday with 53 home runs and 55 steals — a mark topped only by Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz, who also happens to have 16 unsuccessful steal attempts.
“I think he realized that he was on track to have a really special season,” Roberts theorized. “And what can make it a little bit more special and unique, is adding some more stolen bases.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
