What Shohei Ohtani said about playing in 2024 MLB World Series, facing Aaron Judge

The 2024 World Series will be truly a "world" series. Interest in the Fall Classic, the climax to the Major League Baseball (MLB) season, is sky-high around the globe thanks to superstar Shohei Ohtani.

Despite being sidelined as a pitcher this season due to surgery, Japan's Ohtani has excelled as a designated hitter, becoming the first man in MLB history to both hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases this year during the regular season.

Add that to the fact the two teams in the series, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, are big-market teams with global fanbases – and a traditional rivalry dating back to the Dodgers' time spent as a franchise in Brooklyn – and you have a recipe for a blockbuster.

Ahead of Game 1 at Dodger Stadium on Friday (25 October), both teams held their final media rounds, with every journalist present swarming around Ohtani as soon as the Japanese two-way player was made available.

And this is what he had to say.

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"It's finally arrived": Ohtani ready for first World Series

In his previous six seasons in the MLB with the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani never once qualified for the postseason. Now he has not just done so, but also made it to the final hurdle in his first year with his new team, the Dodgers.

"Just very excited, it feels like it's finally arrived," he said through team translator Will Ireton when asked about finally getting to play not just in the MLB playoffs, but also the World Series.

"I've been watching the World Series every year, watching with a sense of disappointment because I couldn't play in one, but this year I'm able to participate and very much looking forward to it.

"I never really focused on this being my first year [with the Dodgers], I just really focussed on playing each and every single game, doing the best I can, and imagining I would be standing at this stage."

The 30-year-old is one of two Japanese players set to compete, with the Dodgers also expected to carry Yamamoto Yoshinobu in their starting pitching rotation against the Yankees.

"The Japan Series and the World Series are going to be a little different from a Japanese fan's perspective," Ohtani said via Ireton when asked about interest in the World Series in his native country and how it compares to Japan's own championship event.

"Japan Series has its own significance for Japanese people. For the World Series, I'm sure it helps if there are Japanese players participating."

Shohei Ohtani on facing Aaron Judge, Dodgers' strength

In the lead-up to the World Series, much of the attention has fallen on the two men heavily favoured to win their respective leagues' Most Valuable Player awards: Ohtani for the Dodgers in the National League and the Yankees' Aaron Judge in the American League.

Asked about Ohtani, Judge said the Japanese was "the best player in the game". It was a compliment Ohtani wanted to return.

In the Japanese portion of the media availability, Ohtani said of Judge's comments: "Everyone knows he is a great player, it's special for baseball players and fans that one of the best players of all time is playing for the Yankees in this era.

"As a fan, I'm grateful he's playing baseball and grateful for the opportunity to play against a player who represents this era."

But make no mistake, Ohtani's here to win against Judge – and he believes his teammates are the perfect group of people who will be able to do that.

"As a non-Dodger looking outside in, I've always felt like the Dodgers were able to easily make it to the postseason," Ohtani admitted through Ireton.

"But (this season) I've really learned to appreciate what it took to make it to the postseason despite the injuries and it was really truly a team effort."

He added to Japanese media: "We have a deep team, if you look at our roster, we have had injuries but the players who have covered for them have been very good.

"The young players who have come up from the minors are also very talented and well-trained. In addition, there are players like Kike (Hernández) who even when they're not playing, support the team during the season, and yet show up in the postseason with explosive power.

"It's a great balance."

Lessons for Shohei Ohtani from first postseason

This being Ohtani's first time in the postseason has brought new learnings and adjustments.

One, that it's not as straightforward as the regular season, and two, the vagaries of scheduling – both teams have had a long break between winning their respective League Championship Series and the start of the Fall Classic on Friday – can throw a spanner in the works.

"I've learned that it's not that easy to have the kind of at bats that I want and, so, regardless of the situation, just being able to have the same kinds of at bats as I had in the regular season as I do in the postseason is something that I'm carrying into the World Series," Ohtani said via Ireton of what he has learned from his first playoff run.

"The focus for me actually has been more about being able to carry the same kind of mindset that I've had during the postseason and now into the World Series."

The Dodgers will have had five days of rest (and the Yankees six) between the end of their LCS and the start of the World Series, and Ohtani acknowledged in response to a question from Japanese media that that adjustment has not been easy for him.

"The energy we've had during the postseason, personally and the team… to maintain that while having time off was a bit unusual. It's difficult to maintain that balance and the game readiness while taking a break."

Ohtani nonplussed about own performance in World Series

Ohtani is no stranger to the big time.

He won the 2016 Japan Series as a member of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, then came in as a closer in the 2023 World Baseball Classic final to strike out then-Angels teammate Mike Trout for Team Japan's winning moment.

If the Dodgers prevail over the Yankees, Ohtani and Yamamoto will become the 14th and 15th players to have won both a Japan Series and World Series crown (Yamamoto won the Japan Series as a member of the 2022 Orix Buffaloes).

And for the man himself, his own performances in the series and his expectations for himself are secondary to that bigger goal.

"I guess it doesn't really matter what happens as long as we win," Ohtani said to the Japanese media.

"It doesn't matter how I'm feeling or whether I was able to hit the ball or not – as long as it's a meaningful out, I think it's okay.

"It really all depends on whether we win or lose."