CC Sabathia has consistently praised Shohei Ohtani, declaring that the two-way player is the best he’s ever seen, but the former Yankee knows just how he would attack the Angels star if the two faced off.
“Two seamer in, two seamer in, slider away,” Sabathia said without hesitation on the latest R2C2.
Ohtani is finally giving fans a look at his transcendent two-way ability after battling injuries in his first three years in the majors. The Japanese star is leading the league with 14 home runs while posting a .933 OPS, and that’s just the half of it. Literally.
On the mound, Ohtani boasts a 2.37 ERA in 30.1 innings this year, striking out 45 along the way with a fastball that reaches 100 mph. But despite his constant praise, Sabathia has no doubt that he would make Ohtani look human at the plate, something he never got a chance to do when he was still playing, as Ohtani was never in the lineup the three times Sabathia pitched against the Angels in 2018 and 2019.
“Absolutely,” Sabathia said. “He’s a lefty. I love him, he’s my favorite player on this planet. I don’t think there’s another baseball player on the planet better than him ever, but I would definitely get his ass out.”
Sabathia, likely a borderline Hall of Famer, was a nightmare for lefties in his prime, and lefty hitters managed an OPS of just .642 against him over his career. So maybe the big southpaw would sit down Ohtani, at least if Sabathia was throwing with his 2007-12 arm. As for the other way around, there’s much less doubt that Ohtani would mow down Sabathia, which is why Sabathia never misses a chance to marvel at Ohtani’s otherworldly talent.
“That guy is the best baseball player ever,” Sabathia said. “Not for nothing, Babe Ruth did it so long ago at a time when the league wasn’t on a level playing field, so the fact that Ohtani is doing it at a time when the baseball is as good as it’s ever been, this guy is amazing.”
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