The baseball world took a collective breath after one of the biggest mysteries was finally solved on Thursday afternoon: The name of Shohei Ohtani’s dog.
Ohtani wouldn’t reveal the name of his canine companion after he won the American League MVP award last month leading the world to question what the dog’s name was.
There had been speculation that the pooch’s name was a clue to the team that Ohtani planned to sign with, but in the end it had no connection to the Dodgers.
The baseball superstar revealed the dog’s name to be Dekopin, which means to poke someone in the forehead in Japanese.
But for American baseball fans, they can simply call him Decoy.
“I figured it would be hard for American people to pronounce it,” Ohtani said through his translator during Thursday’s introductory press conference.
It all started last month when Decoy appeared with Ohtani during the announcement of the AL MVP winner.
Ohtani and his four-legged friend became an instant sensation on social media as the adorable pup high-fived the two-way threat after he won the prestigious award.
But things took a bit of a turn when Ohtani’s team reportedly wouldn’t divulge the name of the dog, which seemed like a simple enough request.
Thus leading to the speculation that the pup’s name had some indication of where Ohtani would be taking his talents with his next contract.
Decoy or Dekopin clearly had nothing to do with the Dodgers, who Ohtani ended up signing a record-setting $700 million contract with over the weekend.
The new deal means that Ohtani and Decoy should be living it up in Los Angeles.
Even after Ohtani’s season was cut short in 2023, the superstar still led the AL with 44 homers and led the entire majors with a .654 slugging percentage and 1.066 OPS.
On the mound, he had 167 strikeouts with a 3.14 ERA in 132 innings.
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