THE STUNNING MISS: Dodgers Exec Admits Underestimating Shohei Ohtani’s Bat as a Teenager.vc

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Dodgers finally landed Shohei Ohtani in a massive $700 million deal that secured two World Series titles, but a top executive has admitted to the one stunning miscalculation made about the two-way superstar when he was still a teenager in Japan.

David Finley, the Dodgers’ Vice President of Scouting (who previously held scouting positions with the Red Sox when Ohtani was a high schooler), revealed that while the pitching talent was undeniable, his scouting reports—and the industry’s consensus—massively undersold Ohtani’s elite hitting potential.

The Single Missed Evaluation

Finley’s admission reveals how even the most respected scouts can overlook the greatness standing right in front of them, fundamentally altering the course of two franchises.

“We knew he could hit,” Finley told Forbes, reflecting on Ohtani’s time matriculating from high school in Japan. “But hitting in high school is a lot different than hitting in pro ball. Absolutely, we didn’t know he was that good a hitter.”

This single missed evaluation had seismic consequences:

• The Pitcher-First View: At the time, Ohtani was turning heads by throwing 99 mph as an 18-year-old high school pitcher. Scouts were focused on his future as an ace, classifying his hitting as secondary or a novelty.
• Altering Franchise Course: Because the Dodgers (and other top MLB teams) were initially not prepared to let him play both ways full-time, Ohtani bypassed MLB entirely after high school, opting instead to sign with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan’s NPB, who promised he could pitch and hit.
• The Angels’ Benefit: This decision eventually cleared the path for Ohtani to sign with the Los Angeles Angels in 2017, the team that was most willing to accommodate his two-way dream when he made the jump to MLB. The Angels benefited from years of his dominance before the Dodgers finally acquired him as a free agent.

The True Ohtani Impact

Finley went on to acknowledge that Ohtani has exceeded even the most effusive assessments, not just with his play but with his global cultural impact:

“He’s not just an MVP and a superstar, but signing him changed the franchise. It really did. I mean, we were good before, but to have him and how big a global superstar he is, it’s been awesome.”

The stunning miscalculation—underestimating the generational nature of his bat—is a lesson in scouting history: sometimes, the greatest talent is the one that defies all precedent and expectation. The Dodgers eventually paid $700 million for the player they didn’t fully believe in as a teenager.