Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani’s English may be getting better, but he doesn’t plan on getting rid of his interpreter anytime soon.
At spring training in Glendale, Arizona, on Friday, Ohtani was asked by Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register if he would continue to need the services of Will Ireton, his interpreter.
Earlier this year, Ohtani accepted his National League Most Valuable Player Award, and he gave his acceptance speech in English.
The two-minute-long address prompted Plunkett to wonder if Ireton “would soon be out of a job.”
Lucky for Ireton, Ohtani dismissed the idea.
“I still need him because there might be some bullies out there that might give me some weird questions that I’m sure he can handle,” Ohtani said
Plunkett added that Ohtani then gave him “the first side-eye of the spring.”
Looking Ahead to 2026 for Ohtani
Ohtani may be coming off back-to-back World Series championships, but he’s not taking his foot off the gas.
Not only is the squad going for what would be the first three-peat in nearly 30 years, but Manager Dave Roberts said he expects Ohtani to compete for the Cy Young Award.
Ohtani last received votes for the Cy Young in 2022, when he was still with the Los Angeles Angels, but at least one other MLB superstar thinks the two-way player’s pitching may be overhyped.
Blue Jay Vladimir Guerrero Jr. said Ohtani “wasn’t that tough to hit” in last year’s World Series.
While Ohtani struggled on the mound in his two games and gave up a big home run to Guerrero, he also struck the Toronto slugger out twice.
And the World Series may have been an aberration for Ohtani on the mound. Earlier in the playoffs, he famously hit three home runs and struck out 10 batters in the same game, the first time an MLB player has ever accomplished that feat in the playoffs.
And that performance made waves beyond baseball, with some calling it the best single performance by a player in any sport.
