ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shohei Ohtani was already one of the biggest stories of this MLB season.
Next month, he'll step onto one of the sport's biggest stages.
The Angels' two-way star will compete in MLB's Home Run Derby on July 12 at Coors Field in Denver, Ohtani making the announcement official on Instagram on Friday afternoon.
Ohtani, the 26-year-old left-handed hitting slugger who entered Friday third in the majors with 19 home runs, will be the first Japanese-born participant in the event's 36-year history and first Angels player to take part since Albert Pujols in 2015. He will also be the first derby contestant to have started an MLB game as a pitcher.
In four major league seasons, Ohtani has 66 career home runs. Combined with his five seasons in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league, he has 114 total as a professional.
This year, he hit eight home runs in April, seven in May and four so far in June — including a projected 470-foot blast on June 8 against the Kansas City Royals that marked the longest of his MLB career.
According to MLB' Statcast system, Ohtani ranks among the top 5% of big leaguers this season in average exit velocity on his batted balls, hard hit percentage and barrel percentage.
Combined with a 2.70 ERA and 73 strikeouts as a starting pitcher, Ohtani has become an early-season contender in the American League MVP race. And in the first update of fan voting for this year's All-Star Game released this week, Ohtani was the top vote-getter among American League designated hitters.
Earlier this week, Angels manager Joe Maddon said the team would let Ohtani decide if he wanted to compete in the derby. Maddon wasn't against the idea of Ohtani playing both ways in the All-Star Game, either.
"If he's able to do that, I would have no objections to it," Maddon said. "His schedule has been great, the number of innings pitched and how many innings he's thrown. I don't see a dramatic spike between now and then. It would just be about how he feels."
In 2016, Ohtani won the NPB's home run derby in Japan. He is the first player confirmed as a participant in this year's event.
Three Angels players have previously won the competition: Wally Joyner, as a co-champion with Darryl Strawberry in 1986; Garret Anderson in 2003; and Vladimir Guerrero Sr. in 2007.
Only the New York Yankees have had more players win the event.
Some players avoid the derby over concerns it can negatively impact their swings or cause extra exhaustion during the lone extended break in the regular-season schedule.
For Ohtani, however, it could provide an opportunity at another signature moment during a season that has already been full of them.
"What I would love to see," Angels catcher Max Stassi told MLB Network radio on Thursday, "is him make the All-Star team, do the Home Run Derby, bat leadoff and start the game. I think that would be pretty cool."
