Shohei Ohtani and his wife are expecting their first child, the Los Angeles Dodgers star has announced.
He took to Instagram to announce the news on Saturday, posting a picture of the baby scan alongside his dog, Decoy.
‘Can’t wait for the little rookie to join our family soon!’ Ohtani captioned the post.
The Japanese star led the Dodgers to World Series glory in his first year with the team after leaving the Los Angeles Angels and signing a 10-year, $700million contract.
Ohtani and his wife, Mamiko Tanaka, got married earlier in 2024. It took Ohtani, who is extremely private, a few weeks to reveal exactly who she was after first announcing that he had wed in February.
‘I began a new chapter in my career with the Dodgers, but I also have started a new life with someone from my native country of Japan who is very special to me,’ he said on social media.
Tanaka is a 28-year-old former Japanese basketball player who played in the country’s top women’s league.
The couple were recently pictured together watching the Los Angeles Lakers play the Portland Trail Blazers in the NBA in early December.
It marks an astonishing end to a dramatic year for Ohtani. Not long after signing for the Dodgers, he was embroiled in a scandal where his interpreter stole millions from him to fund a spiraling gambling habit.
Ippei Mizuhara, who was also a close confidant of the baseball star’s, has issued a guilty plea and the FBI has said that Ohtani was nothing more than a victim.
Mizuhara is due to be sentenced in January after pleading guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return, crimes that carry a potential sentence of more than 30 years in federal prison.
Before that bombshell emerged, Ohtani also underwent Tommy John surgery towards the end of 2023 after damaging elbow ligaments while playing for the Angels.
That op ruled him out of pitching for the entirety of 2024, meaning the Dodgers were unable to benefit from both of the two-way phenom’s remarkable skillsets. But that didn’t stop them from going all the way and capturing the World Series this year.
