In first news conference with Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani dodges questions about Tommy John surgery

Shohei Ohtani opened his first news conference with the Los Angeles Dodgers by dodging questions about whether he had a second Tommy John surgery.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani opened his first news conference with the Los Angeles Dodgers by dodging questions about whether he had a second Tommy John surgery.

“At the time of the announcement, we didn’t know which way we were going to go. That’s why I never said what type of procedure was going to be done,” Ohtani said through a translator Thursday during his introduction after receiving a record $700 million, 10-year contract.

It was Ohtani’s first time speaking with the media since Aug. 9, two weeks before a pitching injury that required surgery with Dodgers head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Sept. 19 and will keep him off the mound until 2025. Ohtani had Tommy John surgery performed by ElAttrache on Oct. 1, 2018.

“I’m not obviously an expert in the medical field, but it was a procedure,” Ohtani said. “I’m not sure what it’s called. I know it was completely different from my first time, so I don’t know what you want to call it. You could probably talk to my doctor about that.”

Ohtani refused to say what other teams he negotiated with before the agreement with the Dodgers last weekend.

“Free agency is still going on and I don’t really want to mess with their plans and I don’t want to say anything wrong, so I don’t want to really talk about what talks I had with other organizations,” he said through translator Ippei Mizuhara.

Ohtani did, however, reveal the name of his dog, seen on his lap when he appeared on MLB Network for the announcement of his second MVP award on Nov. 16.

The dog has the American name “Decoy” and a Japanese name, “Dekopin” or “Decopin” depending on the transliteration.