Shohei Ohtani has reportedly been taken off the trade market by the Los Angeles Angels.
The MLB star, 29, has been having a stellar season and is on track to threaten the record for the most home runs scored in a single season. Now it has emerged Ohtani will not be able to be traded before Tuesday's deadline, despite the various rumours regarding his future away from the franchise.
Several teams were keen to acquire his services but after discussing various offers and holding internal discussions this week, ESPN are reporting that the franchise will hold on to their star player in the hope of making ending the franchise's playoff drought.
The possibility of Ohtani leaving just two months before becoming a free agent just seemed unlikely. But those close to the franchise began to think that Angels owner Arte Moreno may have been persuaded to make a move.
Another source reported by ESPN claimed the Angels would wait until they played back-to-back road series against the Detroit Tigers and the Toronto Blue Jays over the next week before making a decision.
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But the AL West Division team has won six of their last seven games and are currently four games outside of the final wild-card spot. Furthermore, another source claimed the Angels were unsatisfied with the offers they received for Ohtani.
With the trade speculation put to rest for the time being, Ohtani will start the first game of Thursday's double-header with the Tigers. Last weekend, it was announced Ohtani would start Friday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays in order to prevent him from pitching in consecutive games with hot weather in both Detroit and Atlanta.
But after Wednesday’s game against the Tigers was pushed to Thursday due to bad weather, Angels manager Phil Nevin said the club wanted to avoid having Ohtani hitting in two games before traveling to Toronto the night before. "The first reaction is it's the Blue Jays and we want you to pitch against Toronto, but all these games are important," Nevin told reporters Wednesday.
Ohtani will next his next MLB game Thursday against the Detriot Tigers (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)"We need the best Shohei Ohtani we can get and we just felt this was it. Sitting down with him, he knows his body better than anybody. Takes better care of himself than anybody. Just walking through it, we felt like he would be the freshest to pitch Thursday's game vs. Friday's game.”
Starting game one on Thursday will give Ohtani another opportunity to continue his pursuit of Aaron Judge’s single-season home run record. The two-way MLB star, who currently has 36 home runs to his name this season, admitted he would like to break the record, but insisted it is not a priority.
“Of course, I would like to break the [American League] home run record,” Ohtani said via an interpreter on MLB Network. “But before all of that, I need to stay healthy…that's the focus right now.”
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