Shohei Ohtani doesn’t sound like he’s missing the Angels at all after joining Dodgers

Shohei Ohtani played his first game against his former team on Tuesday night, and despite the fact that he went 0-3 with two strikeouts, all eyes and ears were on him when he came out of the game. Reporters were no doubt hoping to get some insight into how he was feeling after facing the Angels as a new Dodger, perhaps hoping to elicit an emotional response, but Ohtani was characteristically straightforward about everything.

When SportsNet LA reporter Kirsten Watson asked him how he felt playing against the Angels and seeing former teammates, Ohtani just gave the verbal equivalent of a shrug and said, "I got to catch up with a lot of them."

The Athletic's Fabian Ardaya asked if Ohtani had reflected on his time with the Angels at all, and Ohtani basically said "not really." He did note that they were on his mind throughout his free agency, harkening back to reports that said the Angels thought they could've kept him if they'd agreed to defer his salary, but they seem to be the last thing on his mind since he became a Dodger in December.

Angels haven't been on Shohei Ohtani's mind since he left for Dodgers in free agency

Ohtani hasn't given the impression that there are any hard feelings between him and the Angels since he left, and he looked more than happy to see former teammates Mike Trout, Logan O'Hoppe, and Matt Thaiss during Tuesday night's game, but he does seem rather fed up with fielding questions about his time in free agent limbo. He recently swiftly shut down a question from a reporter asking what he thought of the Giants and San Francisco as well, saying he'd rather focus on the present.

It's a bit of a different story for the Angels, who Ohtani chose over the Dodgers once and seemed open to choosing over the Dodgers again, had the Angels actually chosen to do the smart thing. But he gave the Angels a chance they weren't willing to take, and now he seems keen to move on fully. Even for Dodgers fans, it must've been a little sad and strange to see Ohtani and Trout greet each other as rivals instead of teammates, but that's about where sympathy for the Angels ends.