Dodgers Interview: Hall of Famer heaps praise on Yamamoto, Ohtani
LOS ANGELES — Thursday night’s awards show in Las Vegas was supposed to be about trophies and speeches, but for Dodgers fans it also turned into a love letter from a Hall of Famer to the two stars at the center of this era. One-time Dodger Pedro Martínez stopped on the red carpet and, almost immediately, started talking about Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani. It felt less like analysis and more like one great pitcher recognizing another, and then another.
Martínez actually began with Yamamoto’s frame, because he sees himself in the Dodgers’ ace. “I’m not big,” he said, holding his hand up. “Look, Yamamoto. Same as me when I was pitching. What is it, five-eleven, one-seventy. I was Yamamoto when I was young, five-eleven, one-seventy, and I pitched my entire career almost at one-seventy.” For Dodger fans who have heard questions about Yamamoto’s size ever since he signed, hearing Pedro shrug that off was pretty satisfying. He laughed and added, “So if he’s five-eleven and Yamamoto’s like him and he’s like Yamamoto, I’ll take him any day.”
Once he was asked about Yamamoto’s season in Los Angeles, Pedro did not hold back. “Unbelievable. Unbelievable,” he said. “He did so great. I’m glad to see him healthy finally so that he could show what he showed in the postseason. It is one of the best performances I’ve seen, especially for a guy that’s just adjusting to the league.” From there he went into why that matters. “He’s not really aware of what the league is all about and he’s still doing well, so I expect him to even get better for the future.” Coming from someone who dominated in his own first full year in the States, that carries some weight.
When the conversation turned to Japanese pitchers in general, Martínez pushed back on the idea that Yamamoto suddenly raised their stock. “The value of Japanese pitchers has always been there,” he said. “It’s just a matter of staying healthy and being able to do what they want to do.” He ticked through some names that clearly still stick with him. “Once they get hurt, like I saw [Masahiro] Tanaka with the Yankees, great pitcher. I love him. I love [Hideo] Nomo. I love [Hideki] Irabu. I love everyone that came.” Then he widened it from pitchers to one very famous teammate. “I love every one of them, but they just need to stay healthy for a longer time so they can become Hall of Famers, like my buddy, my amigo Ichiro. Ichiro the best hitter.” His hope is simple. “So many great pitchers too. I want to see them get to the Hall of Fame and have a long career in America in Major League Baseball.”
It did not take long for Ohtani’s name to come up. The interviewer reminded him that Shohei had just added another unanimous National League MVP to his collection. Pedro nodded. “He deserved it. He deserves it,” he said. “He’s one unique player, and I think he’s going to end up being the most unique and best player that ever stepped on the baseball field. That’s how much respect I have for what Sho does.” He ran through the job description that now feels normal in Los Angeles. “Sho plays in the field, goes out there and hits, runs the bases. Sho is just unique. Sho is only Sho. Nobody else.”
Asked if Ohtani’s return as a two-way star exceeded what he expected, Martínez shook his head. “No, it did not exceed my expectations because Sho showed what he could do. The talent is there.” For him, the key was how the Dodgers handled the year. “If the Dodgers are able to do what they did this year with Shohei, which is take him slowly to get to where they need him and they have enough pitching to support Shohei to kind of be a DH, he’s going to continue to do his thing.” Pedro warned that trying to do everything at once could take a toll. “If he has to go out there every five days, I think everything else is going to be a little lower. His hitting, his running, and his performance are going to be a little bit lower because the season is too long for Sho to keep up with both at the same level.” That is about as clear an endorsement as you will hear for the way the Dodgers mapped out 2025.
Martínez also talked about the night every Dodger fan will remember from this October, when Ohtani turned Game Four of the NLCS into something out of a video game. He was on the TBS broadcast that night. “Unreal. Unreal,” he said, smiling at the memory. “I was like a kid in a candy store where he found probably the chocolate that he’s never seen.” That was his way of trying to describe watching ten strikeouts, six scoreless innings, and three home runs from the same player. “That’s what I saw in Sho,” he said. “Sho did stuff that we never imagined.”
From there he climbed up to a bigger idea about why you tune in at all. “That’s why you have to witness every single game that Shohei Ohtani, or as a matter of fact any player, plays,” Pedro said. “I keep saying it, every single game has its own DNA. You never find a game that’s similar to the other. You might find greater things or you might find lesser things, but something different happens every single time you watch a big league game.” Ohtani, in his view, is right in the middle of that. “Sho is one of the big reasons why we get so many different things happening in baseball and in history as he continues to go.”
The interview finished on a lighter note, one that Dodger fans at the ballpark have already seen in bronze. There is now a plaque at Dodger Stadium where Ohtani’s towering postseason homer landed, and memories of includes Pedro’s now-famous moniker for homers. The reporter asked him for the story behind “Ding-Dong Johnson.” Martínez laughed. “The Ding-Dong Johnson is something I learned from one of my coaches early in my career,” he said. “I just think when you hit the ball, it’s a whack and then ding, and then I just call it Johnson. Ding-Dong Johnson.” He said he tried it out on the air and never looked back. “I came up with that and everybody liked it. My colleagues loved it and we just went with it. It’s something that we came up with on the network and it stuck to the people and we just love it. We just love when someone hits one Ding-Dong Johnson.”
On a night full of awards, that little stretch of conversation felt tailor-made for Dodger fans. A Hall of Famer seeing himself in Yamamoto, calling Ohtani the most unique player he has ever seen, and laughing about the home run call that is already part of Dodger lore. Ohtani and Yamamoto certainly don’t need Pedro Martinez’s stamp of approval to prove their worth. But it doesn’t hurt.
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