Shohei Ohtani Laughed at the Thought of Playing for the Phillies, But He'd Like to See the Rocky Statue

Shohei Ohtani will be coming to a major league ballpark near you next year. The 23-year old Japanese pitcher who can also hit is one of the prizes of this winter’s free agent class. In five seasons with the Nippon Ham of the Japanese Pacific League Ohtani hit .286 with 42 home runs and struck out 624 batters. Now he’s coming to Major League Baseball. One team it doesn’t sound like he’ll sign with is the Philadelphia Phillies. Here he is part of an MLB.com interview from February.

Oof. It’s somehow both more hilarious and sad when you watch the actual video. The exchange starts around the 10:10-mark in the MLB.com interview and Ohtani is cracking up through the entire exchange. When interviewer Jon Paul Morosi follows up by saying he’ll let the Phillies know to take him to the statue when they woo him, Ohtani’s translator relays “Please don’t” while Ohtani covers his face and laughs.