Los Angeles Angels two-way stud Shohei Ohtani has been one of the brightest stars through the early portion of the 2018 MLB season.
Ohtani has shown off good power. But per Maria Guardado of MLB.com, he does not feel like his power is currently good enough to justify a place in the Home Run Derby.
Shohei Ohtani on whether he’d like to be in the HR Derby: “I’m honored to be mentioned in that conversation, but I feel like I’m not at that level yet.”
— Maria I. Guardado (@mi_guardado) May 20, 2018
If Ohtani changes his mind, manager Mike Scioscia would be okay with it.
“That’s a player’s decision,” Scioscia said recently, per Guardado. “I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of things that come into what a player decides, but it’s always been the prerogative of a player if he wants to participate in things like that.”
Ohtani has six home runs on the season. As of Sunday, 30 players have 10 or more home runs.