Shohei Ohtani (like Babe Ruth can pitch and hit) could be fun to manage.

Shohei Ohtani was mentioned in a Wall Street Journal article in July 2015.

Note that two different spellings of his last name are floating around: Ohtani and Otani. His uniform shirt has Ohatni. See youtube.com video of Ohatni hitting a fly ball through the roof:

But baseball-reference.com and writer Joel Sherman use Otani.

This ‘Babe Ruth’ pitcher/slugger may get $300M
By Joel Sherman November 9, 2016

Shohei Otani is what this current free-agent market lacks.
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I'm going with the shirt spelling (Ohtani) for now. Nov. 15, 2016.

Japan’s Answer to Babe Ruth: Shohei Ohtani
Shohei Ohtani moonlights as an outfielder and DH when he’s not busy being one of the best pitchers in Japan
By BRAD LEFTON July 29, 2015 6:54 p.m. ET Tokyo

What’s unfathomable about Ohtani is that most of those at-bats came in between starts as the ace of the Fighters staff and one of the most dominant pitchers in Japan.

Ohtani, who turned 20 that year, became the first professional baseball player since Babe Ruth in 1918 to achieve a season of double digits in both wins as a pitcher and homers as a batter. Here, Ohtani is even considered Ruthian in stature at 6-foot-4, 200 pounds...

Ohtani typically starts once a week in the Fighters six-man rotation. In between, he idles his time batting in their lineup as an outfielder or designated hitter...

This unprecedented routine was the Fighters’ negotiating ploy as a way of enticing him to stay in Japan...

“To tell the truth, I was upset when they drafted me because my mind was made up to go to America,” Ohtani confesses. “But then they explained this idea where I could continue doing both of the things I loved, pitching and hitting. I never imagined such a thing could be possible as a pro...

It’s widely thought the plan includes a promise to allow Ohtani to go to the U.S. when he feels he’s ready to go through the posting system...

By his senior year, the Rangers, Red Sox, and Yankees were among MLB teams that had come for a look...

Nearly everyone, including Ohtani, feels pitching will ultimately be his calling.
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For some perspective, Babe Ruth played 2,084 games for the Yankees, only five as a pitcher: 5-0. Why? Supposedly, he didn't want to do both. With the Red Sox through 1919, Ruth had gradually transitioned from a full time pitcher to mostly an outfielder. His pitching games with Boston 1915-1919: 32, 44, 41, 20, 17. Some of the decrease in 1918 and 1919 was due to fewer games being played because of World War I. But look at Ruth's plate appearances (PA) in those seasons: 103, 152, 142, 382, 543. In 1919 Ruth broke the season home run record with 29.

Sports writer Joel Sherman has recently written about Shohei Otani (?) and this week Sherman spoke about Ohtani on MLB Network where Sherman frequently appears. Sherman assures us that his multiple sources who have seen Ohtani in person think that he is the real deal, both pitching and batting.

Shohei Otani baseball-reference.com spelling
Positions: Outfielder and Pitcher
Bats: Left, Throws: Right
Height: 6' 3", Weight: 189 lb.
Born: July 5, 1994 (Age 22)

Batting:

Year	Age	AgeDif	Tm	Lg	Lev	Aff	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB
2013	18	-10.4	Nippon Ham	JPPL	Fgn		77	204	189	14	45	15	1	3	20	4	1	12	64	.238	.284	.376	.660	71	3	1	0	2	0
2014	19	-9.3	Nippon Ham	JPPL	Fgn		87	234	212	32	58	17	1	10	31	1	0	21	48	.274	.338	.505	.842	107	4	0	0	1	0
2015	20	-8.4	Nippon Ham	JPPL	Fgn		70	119	109	15	22	4	0	5	17	1	0	8	43	.202	.252	.376	.628	41	1	0	0	2	1
2016	21		Nippon Ham	JPPL	Fgn		104	382	323	65	104	18	1	22	67	7	2	54	98	.322	.416	.588	1.004	190	7	1	0	4	2
All Levels (4 Seasons)							338	939	833	126	229	54	3	40	135	13	3	95	253	.275	.347	.491	.838	409	15	2	0	9	3

Pitching:

Year	Age	AgeDif	Tm	Lg	Lev	Aff	W	L	W-L%	ERA	RAvg	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W
2013	18	-9.8	Nippon Ham	JPPL	Fgn		3	0	1.000	4.23	4.38	13	11	0	0	0	0	61.2	57	30	29	4	33	0	46	8	0	2	274	1.459	8.3	0.6	4.8	6.7	1.39
2014	19	-8.6	Nippon Ham	JPPL	Fgn		11	4	.733	2.61	2.90	24	24	0	3	2	0	155.1	125	50	45	7	57	0	179	4	1	6	639	1.172	7.2	0.4	3.3	10.4	3.14
2015	20	-7.6	Nippon Ham	JPPL	Fgn		15	5	.750	2.24	2.24	22	22	0	5	3	0	160.2	100	40	40	7	46	0	196	3	0	9	621	0.909	5.6	0.4	2.6	11.0	4.26
2016	21		Nippon Ham	JPPL	Fgn		10	4	.714	1.86	2.12	21	20	0	4	1	0	140.0	89	33	29	4	45	0	174	8	0	6	548	0.957	5.7	0.3	2.9	11.2	3.87
All Levels (4 Seasons)							39	13	.750	2.49	2.66	80	77	0	12	6	0	517.2	371	153	143	22	181	0	595	23	1	23	2082	1.066	6.5	0.4	3.1	10.3	3.29

What must have gotten people's attention recently was Ohtani's 2016 OPS of 1.004. And that's with a big increase in PA from his previous high of 234 to 382. Ohtani hit 22 home runs and 18 doubles.

In the last three seasons Ohtani's games pitched have decreased: 24, 22, 21. Those are modest numbers of starts by U.S. standards even today. Even with arm troubles, mostly in the first two of his three Yankee seasons, Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka has started: 20, 24, 31. In 2016 100 U.S. pitchers started at least 24 games, led by:

Rk	Player	GS	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	CG	SHO	GF	W	L	W-L%	SV	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA	FIP	ERA+	HR	BF	AB	2B	3B	IBB	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	PO	BK	WP	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	Pit	Str
1	David Price	35	2016	30	BOS	AL	35	2	0	0	17	9	.654	0	230.0	227	106	102	50	228	3.99	3.60	114	30	951	879	40	6	1	7	8	7	19	1	2	0	0	4	.258	.301	.420	.721	86	3595	2437
2	Madison Bumgarner	34	2016	26	SFG	NL	34	4	1	0	15	9	.625	0	226.2	178	79	69	54	251	2.74	3.24	149	26	912	841	37	2	0	8	3	6	15	6	5	4	1	4	.212	.264	.353	.617	68	3571	2369
3	Max Scherzer	34	2016	31	WSN	NL	34	1	0	0	20	7	.741	0	228.1	165	77	75	56	284	2.96	3.24	141	31	902	830	37	4	2	6	7	3	6	8	3	1	1	2	.199	.254	.365	.619	66	3563	2419
4	Justin Verlander	34	2016	33	DET	AL	34	2	0	0	16	9	.640	0	227.2	171	81	77	57	254	3.04	3.49	136	30	903	827	35	4	1	8	4	7	8	5	6	3	0	6	.207	.263	.368	.630	70	3668	2455
5	Edinson Volquez	34	2016	32	KCR	AL	34	0	0	0	10	11	.476	0	189.1	217	124	113	76	139	5.37	4.57	82	23	853	758	41	3	1	7	6	6	16	16	6	0	1	5	.286	.354	.439	.794	110	3232	2041

2016 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters: 87-53 (140 games) Japan Pacific League from baseball-reference.com

Rk	Name	Age	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP ▾	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W
1	Kohei Arihara	23	11	9	.550	2.94	22	22	0	2	1	0	156.0	150	52	51	13	38	1	103	2	1	3	640	1.205	8.7	0.8	2.2	5.9	2.71
2	Shohei Otani	21	10	4	.714	1.86	21	20	0	4	1	0	140.0	89	33	29	4	45	0	174	8	0	6	548	0.957	5.7	0.3	2.9	11.2	3.87
3	Luis Mendoza	32	7	8	.467	3.88	23	22	0	0	0	0	132.1	135	64	57	13	45	2	77	4	0	7	573	1.360	9.2	0.9	3.1	5.2	1.71
4	Hirotoshi Takanashi	25	10	2	.833	2.38	37	14	9	1	1	0	109.2	79	30	29	6	36	0	86	4	0	0	439	1.049	6.5	0.5	3.0	7.1	2.39
5	Mitsuo Yoshikawa*	28	7	6	.538	4.19	27	20	5	0	0	3	109.2	125	53	51	9	52	0	65	5	0	1	494	1.614	10.3	0.7	4.3	5.3	1.25
6	Anthony Bass	28	8	8	.500	3.65	37	14	4	0	0	0	103.2	102	48	42	7	47	4	71	4	0	2	452	1.437	8.9	0.6	4.1	6.2	1.51
7	Takayuki Kato*	24	7	3	.700	3.45	30	16	1	0	0	0	91.1	91	37	35	4	31	1	64	2	0	1	392	1.336	9.0	0.4	3.1	6.3	2.06

Ohtani was second on his team in innings pitched with 140.

Rk	Name	Age	G	PA ▾	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB
1	Kensuke Tanaka*	35	143	626	541	61	147	14	1	2	53	22	8	69	56	.272	.361	.312	.674	169	4	9	3	4	3
2	Sho Nakata	27	141	624	569	61	142	26	1	25	110	2	1	47	126	.250	.308	.431	.738	245	14	3	0	5	1
3	Takuya Nakashima*	25	143	600	473	66	115	10	1	0	28	23	9	63	117	.243	.333	.268	.601	127	5	1	62	1	0
4	Brandon Laird	28	143	598	547	71	144	21	0	39	97	0	0	44	138	.263	.319	.516	.835	282	16	3	0	4	1
5	Haruki Nishikawa*	24	138	593	493	76	155	18	4	5	43	41	5	73	113	.314	.405	.398	.802	196	0	3	22	2	0
6	Dai-Kang Yang	29	130	555	495	66	145	24	1	14	61	5	6	42	121	.293	.359	.430	.790	213	10	10	7	1	1
7	Shohei Otani*	21	104	382	323	65	104	18	1	22	67	7	2	54	98	.322	.416	.588	1.004	190	7	1	0	4	2
8	Shota Ono	29	109	351	282	26	69	13	0	5	35	1	0	25	63	.245	.334	.344	.678	97	6	13	31	0	0

Ohtani had the 7th most PA on his team, the third most home runs and by far the highest OPS: 1.004.

Ohtani is tied for the tallest Japanese player on his team. Thirty year old American Chris Martin was the tallest at 6'8"; Martin relieved in 16 games in 2014 for Colorado and 2 in 2015 for the Yankees.

Hideki Matsui was a big star in Japan. He hit 50 home runs for the 2002 Yomiuri Giants in the Japan Central League but topped out at 31 in his second season with the Yankees (2003-2009).

Finally, how would an American team use Ohtani?

National Conference (NC):
- pitchers bat, no designated hitter (DH)
- Ohtani would have to play the field in NC games.

American Conference (AC):
- when pitching Ohtani's team would have to forego the DH for the entire game, even after Ohtani had been removed ... but they could move Ohtani to another position so that he could bat again and maybe even come back to pitch. Hey, this could be fun.
- when not pitching, DH ... unless playing in NC park; see above.

So, is Ohtani something like Babe Ruth? Would he be more like Rick Ankiel (1999-2013, not 2002) who started as a pitcher, lost his ability to throw strikes, stopped pitching and came back as an outfielder? In 2008 Ankiel was the starting center fielder for the Cardinals: 120 games, 463 PA, 25 HR, .834 OPS, 120 OPS+. That was his best season.

Then there's this. Ohtani would be running the bases a lot more than most pitchers, especially those in the AC. Maybe by already doing that a lot he has developed enough for base running to not unreasonably cause injury. U.S. pitchers have become so limited in their activities that base running has caused serious injury to at least two starting pitchers in recent seasons: Adam Wainwright (2015) and Chein-Ming Wang (2008).