Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani has noticeably not been himself over the past few weeks, and the whole baseball world has taken notice.

The four-time MVP has just four hits in 31 trips this month, and is yet to hit a homer in May. Following a hitless display in Sunday’s loss to the Atlanta Braves, Ohtani’s OPS dropped to .792. Outside of the shortened 2020 season, Ohtani has never finished a year with an OPS below .800.

“I don’t know if it’s a mechanical thing with Shohei,” manager Dave Roberts said. “But there’s a lot of popups, fly balls to the left fielder where, when he’s right, those are doubles and homers. When he’s not slugging, you can tell he’s not right.”

What is Wrong With Shohei Ohtani?

The most noticeable changes in Shohei Ohtani’s profile this season are in his swing. Some slight tweaks in how he has swung the bat could see him return to the MVP-caliber player Dodger fans are used to seeing at the top of the lineup.

Firstly, his bat tilt, which measures the angle at which his bat travels, rose one degree from 37 to 38. While not a drastic change by any means, it would certainly impact Ohtani’s volume of fly balls, especially with the next biggest issue: his bat speed.

Ohtani’s bat speed has continuously dropped since arriving with the Dodgers, and his average bat speeds currently sits at 74.8 mph—1.5 mph slower than the 76.3 mph he sported when he joined the Dodgers.

As a result of his adjusted bat speed and swing angle, Ohtani’s hard-hit rate has dropped 11.6% from last season. The 47.1% clip he’s hitting at the moment ranks as the lowest total he’s had in a 162-game season since 2019, when he battled a knee injury which ultimately resulted in surgery.

What Has Shohei Ohtani Done Well?

While he has had his fair share of struggles at the plate this season, Ohtani has also improved in some areas.

Strikeouts have always been something of a hole in Ohtani’s game, but he has managed to reduce both his strikeout and his whiff rates this season. His whiff rate is down below 30% for the first time since 2020—the only other time it’s been below that benchmark—and his strikeout rate is down 2.3% from last season and sits at 23.4%.

He has maintained his solid eye at the plate as well, and has a 15.4% walk rate, which ranks in the top 10% of MLB.

The superstar is clearly off to a rough start this season, but if he can rediscover the swing which has won him three consecutive MVP awards, the Dodgers will be just fine.

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