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TEMPE, Ariz. — During the mid-morning break after batting practice, Shohei Ohtani slunk into the chair in front of his locker. His 6-foot-4 frame all but engulfed the stool as he fired up a quick game of “Clash Royale” — his favorite video game — on his phone.

It was quickly interrupted. Hansel Robles, the Angels’ eclectic closer, within seconds began yelling (or singing, depending on your taste) into a water bottle to serenade Ohtani with bachata music as the 25-year-old two-way (and allegedly trilingual) star chided him in Spanish.

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“El Caballo Blanco,” Ohtani said, referring to Robles by his nickname, “es loco.”

Robles responded by pinching Ohtani’s arm, and then wincing and shaking his hand, noting the size of the two brick-like appendages that went viral when Ohtani went sleeveless during one of his biweekly media sessions this week. His body transformation has, among other things, prompted reporters to ask Ippei Mizuhara for the Japanese translation for “yoked” — to which Mizuhara shrugged and Ohtani flexed.

this is mesmerizing https://t.co/p1QFnrTfI6

— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) February 20, 2020

Ohtani’s weight has not fluctuated in his time stateside — he’s still listed at 210 pounds (which he confirmed as being accurate) — but his body construction has certainly changed. This winter proved transformational. With a combination of physical maturity and his own availability to work out on his desired schedule, the results have been stark.

“He’s a very impressive athlete,” said Angels general manager Billy Eppler, whose familiarity with Ohtani started long before the organization’s recruitment of the generational talent. “I have a couple friends of mine that are in the NFL, and when they’ve come out to practice and stood around, they said (his build is similar to) the ideal wide receiver in the NFL. That type of build. So that’s why I don’t want to introduce him to them just yet.”

Unlike the last two years when he rehabbed from ankle surgery in 2017 and was limited in workouts after Tommy John surgery in 2018, Ohtani entered the winter with essentially a full offseason of cleared workouts. He had a quick turnaround from season-ending knee surgery to address a bipartite patella in his left knee (which limited his ability to take on extreme load-bearing workouts such as squatting), and he concluded his throwing progression post-Tommy John by December.

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By that point, Ohtani had already put in much of his desired offseason work. Within a week of his knee surgery, he had already added to his versatility by studying and eventually passing his driving test for the first time. (He never learned to drive in Japan and, by his own evaluation, is a “pretty good” driver.)

From there, Ohtani began his offseason program — a heavyweight, low-rep regimen that could put him in as good a shape as he’s ever been to stay healthy with both hitting and pitching over a full season for the first time since 2016, which was the peak of his time playing in Japan as Nippon Professional Baseball’s Pacific League MVP.

There haven’t been notable changes to Ohtani’s diet, save for perhaps an increased diversity of options particularly when eating in the clubhouse. “Just stuff with his macronutrient intake, stuff like that,” Eppler said of any tweaks. And Ohtani’s weight program is not too different from his regimen in Japan, save for an Eppler favorite in which Ohtani improved his vertical leap almost overnight after studying YouTube videos to develop the proper technique. But the implementation proved more noticeable as Ohtani’s body changed in appearance.

Some of this, Eppler said, was noticeable even in his earliest days scouting Ohtani as a teenager. Ohtani has long had the ability to touch triple digits with his fastball and crush massive home runs, but now he matches it with a fresh-cut physique.

“There’s an element of Shohei’s development that’s just going to come naturally through maturation,” Eppler said. “Often times in scouting, before you establish that relationship, you just aesthetically look at a player. … (But) it wasn’t until we really got behind the curtain with Shohei and got to understand what his lifting routines were like, what his diet routines are like, that gave us a sense that he was gonna end up being a pretty good-sized guy.”

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The enhanced size is as much about durability as it is raw power for Ohtani, whose feats of strength have already induced past mythology regarding both his velocity and his ability to light up batting practice. He has yet to top 100 innings in a single season on the mound since 2016, and his total number of innings will likely be capped yet again in 2020 as he isn’t expected to make his pitching debut until mid-May.

But the belief, according to Eppler, is that a thicker base with Ohtani’s developed legs, core and shoulders can help reduce the amount of stress on his surgically-repaired elbow while not sacrificing the fluidity and range of motion that allow his strengths to translate so well on the baseball field.

Ohtani reports the most positive results from a program based around lifting a significant amount of weight for a lower number of repetitions, especially since it allows him to bounce back quickly. It also allows him to access his competitive side. While each player is given a customized workout program, that doesn’t stop Ohtani from trying to find additional people (including himself) to compete against.

“There’s just this inherent characteristic in his DNA that he loves to compete,” Eppler said, “so he’s usually curious about how his teammates are doing, how his peer group does, what we would consider elite.”

So is Ohtani asking what Mike Trout and Albert Pujols lift in an attempt to match them?

“I’m not gonna go there,” Eppler said, “But he’s just curious. He likes to compete. … Everybody is built differently and has different strength characteristics, but that doesn’t stop the guys from wanting to know what each person can do.”

Even if he can prove he’s healthy — Ohtani’s main goal in 2020 — the simple nature of his two-way pursuits will put a cap on how available he is on a regular basis. The belief is that, once Ohtani is fully healthy, he will resume his pre-injury schedule of hitting four times a week and pitching once a week. But if Ohtani is able to return to full strength (and then some), it could potentially open the door for even more.

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“It won’t be early on, but down the road if we do start exploring a play (as a designated hitter) the day before a pitch (day) or play the day after a pitch … it’s going to be because he has this foundation, and he’s demonstrating recovery,” Eppler told The Athletic.

“This foundation, the strength, will help assist in recovery, and hopefully it helps to the point where we can start to entertain a greater usage. It could (help).”

(Top photo of Shohei Ohtani: Masterpress / Getty Images)

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