MLB WORLD SERIES: DODGERS VS BLUE JAYS

October 26, 2025

Shohei Ohtani

Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. With Yoshi's starts a few days ago, how much were you able to study what he did and especially facing a team which you guys are going to face for the whole week and that you've been facing the last few days?

SHOHEI OHTANI: Really good lineup. Yoshi navigated that lineup really well. You have to really have good stuff to be able to put up good results. So for myself, I'm just trying to put myself in the best position to be able to make sure that I can navigate and put up good results.

Q. Why do you think the splitter has become so widespread during the postseason, and what make it's effective for you?

SHOHEI OHTANI: I personally don't think the splitter itself is something to be singled out. There's other pitches that are as equally important, and it's about location, execution. So I don't personally think it's -- you know, the splitter's the highlight.

Q. At various times this postseason Dave has been open about how he feels your at-bats might be able to improve. How much do you appreciate receiving that feedback?

SHOHEI OHTANI: I do feel better at the plate recently, so in that sense, it's been good overall. But equally important is we have pretty good pitching and we have to kind of respect that as well. I do everything in my power to make sure that I'm prepared as much as possible and being at the plate with the right mentality, but got to give some credit to the other side as well.

Q. I was wondering if you could hear the chants in Toronto the last couple nights saying, We don't need you? And if you did, what did you sort of think when you sort of heard that from the crowd in Toronto?

SHOHEI OHTANI: It was a really great chant, and my wife really appreciated it.

Q. Quickly going back to offensively -- we know you don't often come out on the field for batting practice, but is there something that you've been looking for just with your swings out on the field and can you just talk through that?

SHOHEI OHTANI: Really the swing and how it feels, like it's coming off the bat, those are the two things that I can't really get a great feel for in the cage. It's also just a visual and how that looks. So it's just really being able to adapt to all those three things.

Q. Do you hope that your success as a two-way player is encouraging young kids to want to be like you and to not give up and to try to keep succeeding doing both?

SHOHEI OHTANI: Yeah, I like to encourage kids who are trying the two-way to do it as long as possible as long as they're allowed to, as much as their talent level could take them. But I do encourage that.

Q. What do you say to Ohtani as a kid?

SHOHEI OHTANI: Right now, right? I would say study a little more.

Q. To follow-up my friend's question, when you were growing up, who did you want to be like? Who was the person who you wanted to grow up to be like? Who was your hero when you grew up?

SHOHEI OHTANI: Baseball player-wise or anybody?

Q. Overall. Baseball, family.

SHOHEI OHTANI: I did look up to Hideki Matsui and Ichiro Suzuki. Just growing up, it's not like I could watch a lot of the games on TV, and so it was really those two players.