On a sleepy morning at the Oakland Coliseum in early August, MLB’s biggest marvel was in study hall. Shohei Ohtani was tucked into a corner of the visiting clubhouse, sitting alongside his interpreter, Will Ireton, and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ first-base coach, Clayton McCullough. Ohtani, the team’s two-way star, has swapped hitting and pitching for hitting and running this season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery, and he was coming off the first three-steal game of his career.
And yet, McCullough pointed out, Ohtani had something to work on. So he pulled up video of Ohtani’s second steal of the night. Ohtani swiped second with relative ease, but got what McCullough called a terrible jump off Athletics left-hander Kyle Muller. Ohtani nodded, and as they went to the next day’s array of pitchers, the player found a tell.
"He’s impressed me with how much he picks up,” McCullough said.
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