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Estévez: Shohei Ohtani speaks 'sneaky good' Spanish
LA Angels teammate Carlos Estévez claims Shohei Ohtani speaks "sneaky good" Spanish. エンゼルスのチームメイトエステベス・カルロス:大谷翔平のスペイン語は「こっそり」上手
SEATTLE (KTTV) - It goes without saying that Los Angeles Angels' Shohei Ohtani is an international superstar.
The two-way sensation draws two separate press conferences every time he is asked to address the media: one in English and one in Japanese. The former American League MVP also has commercials being broadcasted in Japan and at Angel Stadium, fans can see Japanese advertisements placed all over the ballpark.
Ohtani's reach goes far beyond just baseball fans in North America and Japan, as the Angels star has a following of just under 6 million users on Instagram.
Now, to add to his international appeal, his Angels teammate claims Ohtani can speak Spanish.
"It's sneaky good," Angels pitcher and fellow All-Star Carlos Estévez said with a smile. "He's got some good words in Spanish. I was surprised."
Estévez, who joined the Angels in 2023, said Ohtani surprised him during their earlier encounters as teammates. Estévez said one of the funnier off-the-field moments involving the possibly-trilingual teammate (English, Japanese and allegedly Spanish) is when he'd help some of the Angels teammates understand certain words.
"We're talking about something, and we'd say something in English," Estévez said. "If he sees [that] one of the Latin guys doesn't understand it very well, he drops in Spanish. That's always pretty funny: the Latin guy didn't understand English but Shohei got it and translated it to Spanish."
Also worth noting that back when Ohtani was assigned to entertain his veteran Angels teammates in 2018 as a rookie in the big leagues, the Japanese-born slugger elected to serenade his teammates with a cover of Despacito, a Spanish hit single that was made famous by Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber.