Sports digest: Japanese two-way baseball star Ohtani heads to Angels

Japanese baseball star says he’ll play for Angels

Shohei Ohtani, a standout pitcher and hitter in Japan, announced he will sign with the Los Angeles Angels. Ohtani, who intends to be both a starting pitcher and an everyday power hitter, turned down interest from every other big-league club to join two-time MVP Mike Trout and slugger Albert Pujols with the Angels, who haven’t won a playoff game since 2009.

Ohtani is expected to be a righthanded starting pitcher and a lefthanded designated hitter for the Angels, who are expected to give him ample playing time in both roles. He’ll attempt to become the majors’ first regular two-way player in decades and already has drawn numerous comparisons to Babe Ruth — who excelled as a hitter and a pitcher early in his Hall of Fame career.

The Angels’ combination of a promising core and a beautiful West Coast location clearly appealed to Ohtani, 23, who has been one of the most coveted free agents in years.

The Angels will have to pay $20 million to Ohtani’s club, the Nippon Ham Fighters, but Ohtani will not be paid a huge salary for the next three seasons. He will sign a minor-league contract and can receive up to $2,315,000 in international bonus money from the Angels. Ohtani probably could have received a deal worth more than $100 million if he had waited two years to move stateside, but he wasn’t interested in delaying his progress for money.

Ohtani was 3-2 with a 3.20 ERA this year while slowed by thigh and ankle injuries, and is widely thought to be a surefire big-league pitching prospect. Scouts are more divided on Ohtani’s ability to hit big-league pitching consistently. He hit .332 in 65 games with eight homers and 31 RBIs last season.

Elsewhere in baseball • The Tigers agreed to a deal with pitcher Mike Fiers, 32, who was 8-10 with a 5.22 ERA with the Astros this year.

• Catcher Chris Iannetta agreed to return to Colorado, where he spent six seasons with the team before being traded in late 2011.

Mayfield heavy Heisman favorite • Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield is expected to be the landslide winner when the Heisman Trophy is awarded Saturday night in New York. His favorite status is so strong that Bovada, an online sports-betting service, took the Heisman race off the board in late November, calling Mayfield too big a favorite.The other contenders are Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson — last year’s winner — and Stanford running back Bryce Love.

Oregon hires football coach • Oregon promoted offensive coordinator Mario Cristobal to its head coaching position. He takes over for Willie Taggart, who recently left to become head coach at Florida State. Cristobal has six seasons of head coaching experience at Florida International, for which he was 27-47.

Indiana, Stanford reach soccer final • Andrew Gutman scored in the 50th minute to boost No. 2 seed Indiana to a 1-0 victory over No. 3 North Carolina to reach Sunday afternoon’s title match of the NCAA men’s Division I soccer tournament, in Philadelphia. Trey Muse had two saves for the Hoosiers, who will face No. 9 Stanford — which beat No. 5 Akron 2-0 in the other semifinal behind goals from Foster Langsdorf and Sam Werner. Nico Corti made five saves for the shutout.

MLS title game rematch looms • Toronto will host Seattle on Saturday in Major League Soccer’s championship game. It is a repeat of last year’s matchup, which Seattle won in a penalty shootout after neither team scored before that.

Ambush fall in OT • Robert Renaud scored in overtime, lifting visiting Milwaukee to a 4-3 win over the Ambush in Major Arena Soccer League play. The Ambush, which led 1-0 and 2-1, (0-7) trailed 3-2 late in regulation when Clayton Matheus scored on an assist from Corey Adamson after they pulled their goalie. Nestor Hernandez and Stefan St. Louis has the other Ambush goals. Milwaukee is 6-0.

MU’s volleyball season ends • The Missouri women’s volleyball team was no match for No. 1 Penn State in the regional round of the NCAA Tournament, as the host Nittany Lions swept the Tigers 25-17, 25-18, 25-19. MU, in the round of 16 for the fourth time, finishes at 22-12. Melanie Crow led Mizzou with 12 kills, while Kira Larson added eight kills and Courtney Eckenrode led the Tigers with 20 assists. “Obviously, we’re disappointed with the outcome,” Missouri coach Wayne Kreklow said. “We knew coming in that it was going to be a tough task in squaring off against the nation’s No. 1 seed. They’re No. 1 for a reason. They’re really good. They have a lot of good players out there that do a lot of good things.”

Penn State (32-1) will face Michigan State in the regional final. (Dave Matter)

Golf roundup • Steve Stricker and Sean O’Hair shot a 15-under 57 to take the first-round lead in the QBE Shootout in Naples, Fla. Keegan Bradley and Brendan Steele shot 58, with Brandt Snedeker and Bubba Watson at 59.

• Tapio Pulkkanen shot an 8-under 64 to take a one-stroke lead over Shubhankar Sharma in the European Tour’s Joburg Open.

From staff, wire reports

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