"Shohei Ohtani hit 55 home runs last season after signing one of the biggest contracts in North American sports history and has helped the Dodgers become back-to-back World Series champions in his first two years with the team. And yet, to someone who knows him best, it still isn't enough. Ohtani's 2023 Team Japan manager Hiroki Kuriyama recently shared his expectations of the global superstar. "He's only hit 55 home runs. He hasn't won the Cy Young Award. He hasn't even gotten 20 wins... That's it.""
"Kuriyama isn't offering commentary from a distance. He was one of the few baseball decision-makers in Japan willing to fully embrace Ohtani's desire to become a true two-way player at the professional level. Kuriyama helped develop Ohtani into a dominant pitcher and elite hitter with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, so this critical optimism is not something new."
"Most people would say that Kuriyama was diminishing Ohtani's accomplishments, but it seemed like what he was really doing was defining a new "Shohei Ohtani Benchmark" - not one measured against the league, but against Ohtani's own ceiling. And that's a much higher bar. Because when you change your goal, the 55 home runs isn't the finish line, it's just another milestone."
Shohei Ohtani hit 55 home runs last season after signing one of the biggest contracts in North American sports history and helped the Dodgers become back-to-back World Series champions in his first two years with the team. Hiroki Kuriyama, Ohtani's 2023 Team Japan manager and a developer of Ohtani with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, expects more. Kuriyama pointed out that Ohtani has not won a Cy Young Award and has not reached 20 wins, framing current milestones as steps toward a higher personal ceiling. Kuriyama emphasized that winning remains the priority while setting loftier performance benchmarks.
Read at Dodgers Nation
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