Mookie Betts pushed back on early-season criticism of Shohei Ohtani on Bleacher Report’s On Base podcast, telling listeners the conversation about Ohtani’s value too often ignores what he does on the mound.
“If he doesn't get a hit or he has a couple bad games, it's like, 'What's wrong with Shohei?' I mean he did just go seven inning, two hits, he does have a 0.7 ERA. You forget all the other ways he really affects the game,” Betts said with Angels outfielder Jo Adell appearing as a guest.
The point Betts made is anchored in numbers that show Ohtani's two-way impact early in the season. Bleacher Report noted this year Ohtani has seven home runs, 24 RBI and a.265/.392/.458 slash line at the plate. As a starter, the same report listed a 0.82 ERA and a 0.82 WHIP across seven starts, with 50 strikeouts and six runs allowed.
Betts singled out Ohtani’s recent outing as the kind of performance that gets lost in a narrow focus on a slump at the plate: seven innings, two hits and what Betts described as a 0.7 ERA that changes how opponents plan and how games play out.
Adell underscored the point from a teammate's perspective, calling Ohtani’s preparation and mindset part of what makes him dangerous. “His tenacity and focus when it comes to getting it done, he’s just a force,” Adell said on the show.
The context here is specific: the criticism described on the podcast and in coverage is about Ohtani's offense, not his pitching. That distinction matters because Ohtani's production on the mound — the ERA, WHIP and strikeout totals — offsets or complicates any simple assessment of a few hitless games.
The tension in the conversation is straightforward. Fans and critics often fixate on batting line fluctuations, but Ohtani’s season numbers show a player contributing in multiple, measurable ways. Betts framed that mismatch between public perception and full performance as a failure to remember how a two-way player can affect a game beyond hits and runs batted in.
Bleacher Report and coverage from True Blue LA reported the Betts-Adell exchange and the surrounding statistics. Taken together, the comments make a clear case: early-season questions about Ohtani’s bat are incomplete without acknowledging his dominant pitching figures — and that, Betts implied, should change the headline conversation.
