What to expect from Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani’s return to Anaheim

Shohei Ohtani, the game’s biggest star, will be playing baseball in Anaheim once again. This time with the Angels’ crosstown rivals. 

When fanbases see MVPs leave their team in free agency, most of the time those players are still received warmly once they return. Usually there’s a video tribute on the jumbotron followed by standing ovation from the crowd. 

A small percentage of the time, the MVP will sign with a team that their former fanbase loathes. This is one of those times. 

The Angels fans who’ve attended Angel Stadium this year have not had much to root for. The Angels’ 29 home wins this season are 3rd to last in baseball, following the White Sox’s 18 and Marlins’ 25. It stands to reason that a certain contingency of Angels fans will arrive this weekend at Angels Stadium not looking for a win from the home team, but looking to boo the superstar who signed with their biggest rival. 

On Opening Night this season, there were smattering of boos when Ohtani was shown in the pregame “Calling All Angels” video. In the annual Dodgers-Angels Spring Training exhibition series, there were some less than warm sentiments thrown towards Ohtani as well.

Is that booing all for Ohtani, the baseball player? Definitely not. The boos are more representative of their frustration with all that came before his $700 million deal with the Dodgers. 

The frustration mostly lies with Arte Moreno not willing to spend the money to lock up Ohtani, the player who provided ownership with an obscene amount of money in ticket sales, merchandising deals, sponsorships, and advertisements. 

The boos will be partly because the Angels lost Ohtani without receiving any prospects back, helping revamp their farm system and propel them into the next era of the franchise. Obviously, there were discussions on trading Ohtani while he was still an Angel, as many teams were willing to part with their top prospects in order to retain the star’s services and try and work out a long-term contract. There were many rumors that the Angels would have received teams’ #1-5 prospects, at minimum, in years past in a hypothetical Ohtani trade. 

On the field, if Ohtani inches closer to a potential 50-50 season, there will be much more frustration from the fanbase. Ohtani is the odds-on favorite for National League MVP at this point in time, looking to join Frank Robinson as an MVP in both the AL and NL. A 50-50 and MVP season, in a season where he was not favored to win MVP because he’s a full-time DH and not even pitching, would provide the fans with a certain level of resentment. 

Shohei Ohtani is one of the best Angels of all time, certainly the most unique. A modern day Babe Ruth coming and going from your team is less than ideal. SHOULD Ohtani be booed? Definitely not. Ohtani helped pick the team up while Mike Trout’s physical decline began, and kept the franchise more than relevant in doing so. You can’t really blame the fans who do, though.