Shohei Ohtani won't be ready for opening day after offseason surgery

Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani won’t be ready for opening day. Angels general manager Billy Eppler said that Ohtani has made progress during rehab, but will not be full strength by the start of the regular season, according to MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger.

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The 23-year-old Ohtani is recovering from Tommy John surgery. He underwent the procedure in October, and is not expected to pitch in 2019. That won’t keep Ohtani off the field, though. He still expects to serve as the team’s designated hitter once he’s cleared.

It’s unclear when that will be. Ohtani has been cleared for “full strengthening” rehab, and will eventually have to progress to taking dry swings. Once he’s able to do that, Ohtani will need to take batting practice and then get in baseball shape before he can rejoin the Angels.

Ohtani’s unique status as a two-way player adds an extra level of difficulty to the equation.

Once he returns, Ohtani should immediately become one of the team’s best hitters. As a part-time hitter during his rookie season, Ohtani posted a .285/.361/.564 slash line. That performance was good enough to give Ohtani a 152 wRC+ (Weighted Runs Created Plus), which ranked second among Angels hitters behind Mike Trout.

Ohtani managed that while hitting on a part-time basis during his rookie season. With his full attention devoted to hitting in 2019, Ohtani could be just as compelling during his sophomore season.

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