2020 foresight: Eligibility Trouble Mr. Ohtani?

I recently had this thought: What positions will Shohei Ohtani be eligible at next year? UTL/DH for sure. That's easy. But will he still retain his pitching eligibility? I am, of course, only talking about leagues where there is only one Ohtani, and not a separate pitcher and hitter. He will go all of 2019 without throwing an MLB pitch due to tommy john. Generally a pitcher would, of course still retain the same eligibility. But, none of those pitchers would have actually continued to play another position.

Per ESPN rules a player needs 10 games in season to earn eligibility. That would put him somewhere about June in 2020 if he was held to that standard. ESPN has a statement saying that, essentially, they can award eligibility based on the status having a strong affect on the players value. I would have to think that Ohtani would apply to this.

Fantrax is the other site I often play on and again, there is one and only one Ohtani. By the way, I strongly feel this is the correct way to manage this. Why separate the two? And, if you were going to, why not separate all aspects of a players games. Can I get just Billy Hamilton's base running and Jake Lamb's PAs agains righties please? Exactly.

I suspect ESPN will use the rule that they have listed on their site. I think Fantrax will probably do something similar. I did think it was an interesting issue though. It seems the fantasy baseball world was not quite ready for a two way player, especially not one of Ohtani's considerable skill. He keeps find ing a way to challenge the industry. I recently brought this thought up when negotiating a deal involving Ohtani. The other owner was adamant that Ohtani would lose SP status and enter 2020 as a DH. Or that the Angels would just give up on him as a two way player and let him play RF. I don't share his opinions, but, it did alter the deal. In fact it killed it. So, leverage this as you can. I would hope that the authorities in this matter would give us a ruling at some point soon. I am not sure that I expect that, but for those dynasty owners out there, it might be helpful. And who knows how prevalent this might be in the near future.