Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani announced Saturday that he and his wife, Mamiko, are parents of a baby girl.
The Instagram post showed a picture of the baby’s feet and the family dog, Decoy.
“I am so grateful to my loving wife who gave birth to our healthy beautiful daughter,” Ohtani wrote in his post. “To my daughter, thank you for making us very nervous yet super anxious parents.
“I would also like to thank the Dodgers organization, my teammates and the fans for their constant support and kind words of encouragement.”
Ohtani went on the paternity list Friday in anticipation of the birth. He’s allowed to miss three games. Saturday’s game against the Texas Rangers marks the second of the three.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters he is hopeful Ohtani will travel to Texas and be in the lineup on Sunday. Los Angeles is off Monday and opens a two-game road series against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday.
Roberts said Ohtani is about to face a new challenge now that he’s a father.
“He is a very good compartmentalizer,” Roberts said. “He loves his sleep. So it’ll be interesting to see how the sleep wins out, or it doesn’t win out, when you have a baby.”
Ohtani, 30, is batting .288 with six homers in 20 games this season, but has knocked in just eight runs.
The three-time MVP is in his eighth season and won his first two MVP awards with the Los Angeles Angels. He joined the Dodgers prior to last season and has 231 career homers in 880 games.
