Worried about Ohtani's slump? Joey Votto isn't. Here's why

Is it really fair to say that Shohei Ohtani is slumping when he has a .370 on-base percentage and is still 22% more valuable than the average MLB hitter by wRC+? And don’t forget that he also leads the Majors in ERA at just 0.82.

But when we’re talking about Shohei Ohtani, those numbers at the plate qualify as an extended “slump.” He owns a career 155 wRC+ and has not been below 172 in the past three seasons. His OPS over nine seasons is .950, well above his current .797.

So what’s going on with the Dodgers superstar? One of the game’s best left-handed hitters in recent history, Joey Votto, joined MLB Network on Friday to break it down.

For Votto, Ohtani’s slight underperformance comes from a very simple origin: the approach at the plate. Votto assessed that Ohtani has struggled more than usual against pitches at the top and outside portions of the strike zone, not letting the ball get deep and not driving it to the opposite field.

The numbers bear that out. Ohtani’s slugging this season has come heavily in the inside and lower portion of the plate, as the following graph displays.

Ohtani destroyed all pitching in 2025, but you can see a clear difference -- as Votto pointed out -- in his ability to handle the high strike.

“In past years, and certainly last September, he showed that that is a strength of his when he's at his very best,” Votto said. “In 2026, maybe it's a slight adjustment. Maybe it's early. Maybe it's small sample size. Maybe it's the new responsibility of being the very best pitcher or the 1B best pitcher in all of Major League Baseball. But he just is ever so slightly off.”

Ohtani has pulled his batted balls 53.7% of the time in 2026, representing a massive jump from 43.2% a year ago and 40% in his career. He’s going back up the middle significantly less as a result, with just 25.9% of his batted balls heading for center field a stark decrease from a 35.5% career rate.

Ohtani took batting practice on the field this week -- an extreme rarity for the four-time MVP. But Votto, who saw the BP session live, said it looked like Ohtani was just trying to get the right feeling back.

“I'm not a hitting coach, but I can tell you we want to feel straight lines, even on the pull side, and we don't want to see top spun balls or curled balls,” Votto said. “Because we're just not as square to the ball, and the feeling of flushing a ball through the center of the field, through left-center field, center field, and right-center field makes you feel as if you're more balanced at contact. It makes you feel like more of the center of the bat is making contact with more of the center of the ball. We want that control.”

Votto is greatly encouraged by the fact that Ohtani’s OBP is still staying strong, buoyed by a 15.1% walk rate that still ranks in the 90th percentile.

“He's one game away from, all of a sudden, passing the .500, .550 slug and entering into the .950, 1.000 OPS territory,” Votto said. “If he wasn't walking, if he didn't have that plus on-base percentage above his batting average, then I would be more concerned.”

The Dodgers have given Ohtani more rest around his starts on the mound this season. That includes not hitting when he’s pitching and back-to-back days out of the lineup this week, the first time that’s happened in his Dodgers career when he's been on the active roster.

He did homer for the seventh time this season on Tuesday, his first since April 26 and second in his last 113 trips to the plate. But the guy who hit more than 50 home runs each of the past two seasons is still in there. Votto is confident that version of Ohtani will reappear soon.

“I think we're about to watch a guy who has - I mean, he has a three-win month, I think, in the last couple years,” Votto said. “I think we might have a guy who puts together a couple of those in 2026 and puts together one of the all-time great seasons. It's going to be a blast to watch from May 15 till the end of the year.

“It's inevitable. It's not possible for him to fail.”