Viral Shohei Ohtani-Alex Call incident is feeding into ugly Dodgers narrative

Baseball fans will take any excuse to hate the Los Angeles Dodgers, but this year, some of the calls are coming from inside the house. Roki Sasaki criticism is valid. Dalton Rushing criticism is more than valid. But the California Post's Dylan Hernández recently decided to take aim at Shohei Ohtani, for some reason.

During an appearance on 97.1 The Fan, Hernández wondered aloud what Ohtani was "really prioritizing" and if he would put winning a Cy Young over the good of his team.

Dodgers fans tend to have something of a contentious relationship with Hernández, but it still holds weight when a prominent Dodgers voice questions the character of the game's biggest star.

We're seeing shades of that this week. On Wednesday night, after Edgardo Henriquez wrapped up a 9-5 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, Ohtani and Alex Call jumped the dugout fence to get onto the field for high-fives. Call's cleat caught Ohtani's elbow, and the Dodgers' $700 million man was in clear distress as he walked it off.

The core of Hernández's doubt — is Ohtani a team-first guy? — had already morphed into the question, "Is Ohtani a diva?" The incident with Call took that rage-baiting talking point a step even further.

Alex Call-Shohei Ohtani moment invites ridiculous Dodgers discourse

No one is advocating for blind loyalty here. If there was actually a valid concern to be had with Ohtani, then Dodgers fans and writers alike should be able to call him out about it accordingly.

But everyone knew that Hernández was just stretching and engagement-farming when he came up with his initial take. When had Ohtani ever indicated that he would overrule the organization's wishes in the pursuit of a Cy Young? If anything, he's frequently gone out of his way to say that he would take his cues from Dave Roberts and team doctors.

Trying to "catch" Ohtani for reacting to getting cleated in his throwing elbow is a ridiculous exercise. Newsflash: getting hit in the funny bone hurts.

Are some Dodgers fans and pundits having a hard time dealing with the fact that there's really very little to complain about with this team? Do some people really need to create drama where there is none, just to entertain themselves?

It looks like the answer is yes. Sorry to those people for their struggle to enjoy good things. That must be tough.

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