Angels take cautious approach with Ohtani

This story was excerpted from Rhett Bollinger’s Angels Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ANAHEIM -- The Angels made an adjustment to their pitching plan with two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani for the first time this season this week, deciding to give him an extra day of rest instead of pitching him on his customary sixth day.

With an off-day on Monday, the Angels would’ve had to shuffle their rotation to get Ohtani in line to start against the Cubs on Thursday after his last start came on Friday in Houston. But the Angels decided to keep everybody on their turn to give them an extra day. Manager Phil Nevin said Ohtani was on pace to shatter his career high in innings pitched and had looked a bit fatigued on the mound in recent starts. It comes at a cost, however, as Ohtani will now make one fewer start heading into the All-Star break.

Ohtani, the AL MVP in 2021 and the runner-up in ‘22, will now start on Friday against the Mariners in what should be a pitchers’ duel with ace Luis Castillo in the series opener at Angel Stadium. The pitching plan also worked against the Cubs, as Angels starters Tyler Anderson, Jaime Barría and Reid Detmers combined for a 4.02 ERA in 15 2/3 innings in the much-needed three-game sweep.

“We kept everybody on their day because Shohei is approaching uncharted territories,” Nevin said. “He's getting to where he would surpass 200 innings if he stays on this pace. And I do think there's been a little bit of fatigue that has gone on in his last couple of starts. I made the choice to just move him back and put him on his regular day. It's gonna take one start away from the first half but I think it's gonna be beneficial to us at the end.”

In previous seasons, Ohtani pitched as part of a normal six-man rotation, but this year the Angels wanted to maximize his start total by having him pitch every sixth day. Last year, he pitched on his sixth day (a.k.a. five days’ rest) 12 times, his seventh day 12 times and on his eighth day two times. He fared better with less rest, posting a 1.61 ERA in those 12 starts on five days’ rest and a 2.89 ERA in his other 16 outings. All told, he made a career-high 28 starts and posted a 2.33 ERA with 219 strikeouts in 166 innings.

This year, all of Ohtani’s outings have come with five days of rest outside of his Opening Day start against the A’s. He's made 12 starts and has posted a 3.30 ERA with 96 strikeouts, 29 walks and 10 homers allowed in 71 innings.

He was essentially unhittable in his first five starts, with a 0.64 ERA in 28 innings, but has posted a 5.02 ERA in 43 innings over his last seven outings. He had a rough stretch of four starts against the A's, Cardinals, Astros and Orioles, posting a 6.12 ERA over that span with eight homers surrendered in 25 innings.

He turned it around with back-to-back strong outings against the Twins and Marlins but then struggled against the Astros last time out, giving up five runs on nine hits, including two homers, over six innings.

Nevin was asked if the pitch clock has added to any extra fatigue with Ohtani but he said he didn’t believe it was the issue.

“He's had a couple innings where he struggled with his command and gotten hit a little bit after that,” Nevin said. “But at times you saw it last year. He’s human, even though we all think he’s a robot, and he gets tired like anybody.”

But the Angels are hopeful the extra day and one fewer start before the All-Star break will get him back on track for the rest of the season. They’re still plotting out when his final start will be before the break, which runs from July 9-13.

“He could get a pretty significant break if he pitches Tuesday or Wednesday before the break and then all the way until the following Friday,” Nevin said. “So we just felt this was the right thing to do.”