Shohei Ohtani, a designated hitter who pitches or a pitcher who designated hits, is one of the most compelling baseball players in the world. When he’s on, he can pitch as well as almost anyone. When he’s on, he can absolutely rake.
But perhaps an underdiscussed element of his incredible talent is his next-level speed. Long and strong, you wouldn’t necessarily look at Ohtani and think he’s one of the fastest guys in the game, but he is! His 29 feet/sec sprint speed is 16th fastest in baseball this year, tied with, among others, Ronald Acuña Jr., who is well known for his speed.
And Ohtani just showed it off on this groundball to shortstop, which wound up turning into a double:
Shohei Ohtani just doubled on a grounder to short pic.twitter.com/tRQN88L4Pw
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) May 4, 2021
Sure, the ball took a weird kick off the mound and then off the shortstop, but not THAT far. And, of course, part of the problem for the shortstop was that he knew he had to hurry with Ohtani running down the line. The official score on that grounder to short? A double.
Unicorn. Just a unicorn.