In Photos: Shohei Ohtani's focus on screen contrasts Freddie Freeman's relaxed mood on flight to DC
Superstars Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani have very different attitudes on how to fly these days. The two teammates were on a flight to Washington DC for a series and went about it differently.
Ohtani, the two-way phenom on a $700 million contract, had his eyes pinned to a tablet. In contrast, Freeman had his nose in a magazine of sorts. Ohtani seemed to have an amused look on his face, while Freeman looked lost deep in thought.
It's not clear what either of the two was reading/consuming. What is clear is that these two have different ideas on how to pass the time on a flight. It takes five hours to fly from Los Angeles to Washington DC, and Ohtani opted to have a tablet while Freeman opted to read.
Exploring Shohei Ohtani's, Freddie Freeman's starts
The MLB season is still young, so any superstars not playing well have quite a lot of time to turn it around. That doesn't matter much for either of these players, as both have got off to good starts.
Freddie Freeman is batting with a 131 wRC+. That's fairly low for his standards, but it's a good metric for three weeks when the weather isn't ideal for offense. A .287/.406/.391 slash line isn't spectacular, but it's good enough, especially the on-base percentage.
On the other side, Shohei Ohtani has mashed for the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's early into that decade-long contract, but he's proving worth the return offensively. Even though he has the DH penalty, he still has a 1.5 fWAR.
He also has a 199 wRC+, among the best marks in baseball. Ohtani's slash line is also impressive at .368/.431/.663. An early OPS of 1.094 is good.
Ohtani is unfortunately not contributing to the pitching side of things, though. He is still recovering from surgery after his UCL injury with the Los Angeles Angels. He'll be back on the mound next season but is strictly a batter.
The Dodgers haven't been as blazing hot as their spending spree during the offseason suggested they might be. But their early success can be attributed to an elite offense more than buoyed by these two sluggers in the middle of it.