Shohei Ohtani should be more of an advocate for two-way players in MLB

In March, when the MLB owners’ lockout ended and the season schedule was confirmed, I started looking forward to the Detroit Tigers’ series this weekend with the Angels — this was the weekend I knew I might see a unicorn at Comerica Park.

Unicorns, of course, are rare in real life. But they’re even rarer in baseball because baseball likes doing things a certain way — rarely changing for many, many years. An example: For nearly half a century, the New York Yankees have had a ridiculous rule prohibiting beards or long hair (mustaches are OK) for their hitters and hurlers.

So whenever something new, or even the possibility of something new, comes around in the majors, I get excited. That’s why I eagerly anticipated the arrival of my unicorn: Michael Lorenzen.

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You see, the Angels starting pitcher was a college unicorn — a slugging outfielder and closer at my alma mater, Cal State Fullerton. He was a semifinalist for the NCAA’s Golden Spikes Award (college baseball’s player of the year) and a finalist for the John Olerud Award, given annually to the top two-way college player. (Before the helmeted Olerud jumped right from college to the majors, he was an All-American pitcher AND first baseman at Washington State.)

Lorenzen, who signed a one-year deal with the Halos in November, pitched seven seasons with the Cincinnati Reds and also played 34 games in the outfield, batting .233 with a .710 OPS, seven home runs and 24 RBIs in 147 plate appearances.

I wanted to ask Lorenzen if he was interested in following in the footsteps — hoofsteps? — of the majors’ slightly better-known unicorn: Angels starting pitcher and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, the reigning American League MVP. More than any other big-leaguer, Lorenzen might have the best shot at matching Ohtani’s two-way frequency (if not his results).

Unfortunately, Lorenzen is on the injured list with a sore shoulder and didn’t make the trip to Detroit. So I asked Tigers catcher Tucker Barnhart, his former Reds teammate, whether he and Lorenzen had spoken about being a full-time two-way player.

“Yeah, definitely, he hit at the big-league level when we played together in Cincinnati,” Barnhart said. “I caught him in the minor leagues, where he was first, and finally specializing in pitching. But when he did hit for us and play the outfield for us in Cincinnati, it was incredible to watch.”

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Incredible to watch. This is the essence of my fascination with Lorenzen, and, yes, Ohtani. I simply cannot fathom what Ohtani is doing: An elite pitcher and hitter who is playing at such a stratospheric level that he was the unanimous MVP last year, when he combined performance at the plate and on the mound unseen since Babe Ruth. This year, Ohtani trails only Aaron Judge as the MVP favorite.

“Obviously, Shohei’s doing it at the highest level in the world,” Barnhart said. “… To say that I thought I’d see it at the major-league level, I’d probably have to say no. But I think that makes it even cooler to see what he’s doing.”

Tigers pitcher Daniel Norris admitted he still marvels at Ohtani.

“You watch the guys on the field every day,” Norris said, “knowing what it takes to pitch every fifth day for him and still going and hitting, and hitting at a high clip, is wildly impressive.

“It’s one of those things, collectively as baseball players, we’re watching it happen with our eyes, and just every day you’re just in awe of it. Just incredible.”

There’s that word again: incredible.

But for anyone to even dream of being a two-way player, it has to start with pitching talent. I asked Norris — who homered at Wrigley Field in his first big-league at-bat — if he ever thinks about being a hitter.

“I think about it a lot, you know? I loved playing every day,” he said of his high school experience. “Yeah, I think there’s times where I daydream a little bit about playing a position and hitting. But I’m pretty plugged into pitching.”

Norris nailed one of the key sticking points with being a two-way player. There are huge demands on a major-leaguer focusing on just hitting or pitching; the idea of doing both simultaneously is almost incomprehensible.

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“Oh, yeah, it is pretty crazy,” Angels catcher Kurt Suzuki said. “It takes a lot of energy obviously to do it both ways. You don’t ever see it.

“(Ohtani’s) routine’s down to a T, to be able to do that you have to be able to manage your time and get everything in and all that stuff.”

The workload is one of the biggest factors preventing a two-way path. Incredibly, the Angels have yet another player with two-way ability on their roster. (Maybe they have a secret unicorn stable under the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland). In 2019, Jared Walsh played first base for 31 games and threw five innings of relief; an arm injury in 2020 ended his pitching career.

Walsh was confident about hitting and pitching until he saw what Ohtani had to do.

“I was like, ‘This is gonna be no problem,’ ” he told the Los Angeles Times in March. “Then I saw him, and I was like, ‘Ah, I don’t want to do that much work,’ so I’m not doing it.”

Another factor that inhibits two-players: the willingness of an organization to support them. And, in a way, Ohtani sort of hurts every other player’s chances.

“Kids are gonna want to do it, for sure, but it’s the front office that is going to set the bar too high,” Lorenzen told the Times in March. “The thinking is, ‘Oh, unless you’re Shohei, you’re not successful,’ and that doesn’t make any sense to me. Unless you’re Max Scherzer, you’re not a successful starting pitcher? That doesn’t make any sense.”

Another factor, and maybe the most important one, might be advocacy. And that’s where Ohtani needs to step up and start telling the baseball world that it’s possible for players, especially impressionable youngsters, to try to follow in his footsteps.

“Yeah, I think it’s great for baseball,” Barnhart said. “I think it’s great for little kids to see that you don’t have to specialize in one position and you can be the best player in the league and be elite at both.”

Yes, it’s unlikely they will succeed. But kids dream big.

Unfortunately, Ohtani doesn’t speak often to media. He only talks after he pitches or if he has an extraordinary day at the plate. Some Japanese reporters I spoke with lamented his lack of availability. And his play can only do so much talking. But he can always use Instagram to reach his 1.4 million followers.

I understand that Ohtani has a ton on his plate, and now I only want to add more, demanding the unicorn speak more often.

No one can’t tell the future. But we can read a little into the past, which tells us MLB has at least recognized the two-way player as a roster classification since 2020. Even so, players are divided about whether Ohtani will pave the way for future two-way players.

“I don’t think so,” Suzuki said. “There’s a reason why we haven’t seen it. I’m sure there’s a lot of guys who could do it, but to do it (in the majors)?”

Norris is more optimistic about the possibility.

“Yeah, you have to think so,” he said. “It definitely opened some eyes to people that thought that wasn’t possible. But he’s certainly showing it is.”

If it happens, it’ll be because players convince themselves the daunting workload is worth it and teams convince themselves there’s enough value in a player who provides the ultimate roster flexibility. And with any luck, it will happen a lot sooner than we’ll see bearded dudes with long hair wearing pinstripes.

Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.