MLB columnist, Jeff Passan, joins the Petros and Money show to talk about Shohei Ohtani and the Dodger's slow start to the season. Although Ohtani had a quiet spring training, Passan credits the 23-year-old's success on the ability to make adjustments.
"Shohei Ohtani is a pretty freaking incredible athlete. And is capable of making the types of adjustments on the fly that regular baseball players are simply are not. So when you go and look at what he did, changing his swing at Dodger Stadium about to go against Rich Hill, a left on left guy with a nasty curve ball the kind of thing that was buckling his knees all spring. He changed his swing and took out the leg kick and brought in the toe twist and really accelerated his growth that quickly. It's a testament to how great of an athlete Ohtani is. That's really the fulcrum of his success at this point."
Passan also touched on the Dodgers struggles this season. While many people have began to hit the panic button on the teams 2018 season, Passan believes it's way to early for that kind of speculation.
"This is still the Dodgers division to lose at this point. As bad as they have looked through the first 15 games and through the first 13 particularly, I still think they're the best team in the division. Get back to me June 15th, if they are not in first then, ok maybe there something to talk about. We got to remember we are still two and a half weeks into the season and there's a ton of baseball to be played. Listen to the full interview below."
The Dodgers also have the thought of re-signing Clayton Kershaw on their mind. Kershaw will be a free agent after this season and as of now there hasn't been any talks about on extension. Passan says the Dodger's fanbase would take a toll if the team were to lose Kershaw in free-agency.
He has the chance to be the greatest pitcher ever and the idea of him finishing his career in another uniform, I think the message that it would send to fans and I know you can't run your team on messages sent to fans. And I know you can't essentially make a hundred plus million dollar gamble because of the message that it sends to fans.
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