baseball astrology v. 2: shohei ohtani and the saturn return
do I know any other baseball players?
Last year I had ambitions of launching a newsletter series about baseball and astrology. I was inspired after doing a deep-dive into Shohei Ohtani’s chart and trying to decipher if he was a Gemini or Taurus moon (jury’s still out). But then I never wrote about baseball and astrology again. Well, that’s not totally true, because I wrote a lot of horoscopes that ran on MLB.tv ad breaks (so if you saw those, hi, that was me). Honestly, I was feeling really down about my astrological abilities this year, so I wasn’t especially inspired to consistently keep up with this newsletter. But I want to learn, or relearn, how to use writing and astrology as a tool for joy, instead of something to be mad at myself about. As much as writing will always feel like homework, and how I’ll always probably feel like a bad astrologer, these are two things I love to do and explore, so here I am, trying again! Writing another newsletter about…Shohei Ohtani!
Even if you’re not an avid baseball fan, you’re probably aware that the Dodgers swept the Yankees in the World Series last week. Sad for my Yankees fan coworkers, great for me who was on call for game six and didn’t want to change ads at midnight. And especially amazing for the Dodgers organization, who invested a ton of money when they signed Ohtani last year after he was finally a free agent. When I first wrote about Ohtani, he was still on the Angels, so I didn’t know what team he was going to end up on for the 2024 season. But I did know he had some big transits coming up, mainly his Saturn return.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Saturn return (and god bless your ignorance), here’s a little explainer before I get into Ohtani’s public reckoning with the planet. Saturn’s a fairly slow planet that takes about 27-30 years to make its way around the Zodiac. So when we’re in our late 20s, Saturn is like, “Hey, hope you enjoyed the last 30ish years, now I’m back to teach you some HARD LIFE LESSONS!!!!” Saturn isn’t exactly a fun, cool planet. Saturn rules, well, rules, restrictions, boundaries, delays, depression, responsibilities, you know, all of the things people absolutely LOVE (if you’re a freak). So when you’re going through your Saturn return, you’re not exactly having the time of your life (and if you are, hats off to you). I went through my Saturn return from 2020-2023, when Saturn was in Aquarius. This was the period of time when I stopped drinking, got out of an on-and-off relationship, and generally got confronted with my own bullshit (which I’m still dealing with now). This is easy to summarize into one sentence, but in reality all of these experiences were grueling and deeply painful. Your Saturn returns deals with some level of suffering, especially depending on how much you resist it. It’s also when I learned that everything comes with a price.
Ok, NEGATIVE! Saturn can keep it too real, so here’s some positive changes that came out of my Saturn return. I got serious about pursuing astrology and started making small steps to hopefully make it my full-time job one day. The decision and process to give up alcohol was almost impossible but one I’ll always be proud of. I got into my first really serious, healthy relationship, which couldn’t have happened back in 2020. Saturn returns are for building sound structures, creating a solid foundation so that everything that grows on it can really flourish. Saturn wants to see you win! Saturn wants to see you commit to your goals! Sure, it might not be the time when something completely amazing happens to you out of nowhere, or you experience an insane stroke of luck, but it’s certainly a rewarding time. So you don’t have to be TOO afraid when astrology ultimately comes for your ass.
So back to Shohehi Ohtani—he was born when Saturn was at 12° of Pisces, a degree that Saturn reached earlier this year, specifically in late March. What was going on for Ohtani around that time? He was in the news quite a bit, but it wasn’t because of the upcoming baseball season. It was because his longtime interpreter was being accused of illegal betting, and had apparently stolen millions of dollars from Ohtani to pay off his gambling debts. The story was confusing, and it kind of tarnished Ohtani’s squeaky clean image, even though he was eventually cleared of any involvement. It was probably not the start of the baseball season Ohtani was hoping to have, and certainly seems tied to his Saturn return. Pisces is a sign that lacks boundaries, and has trouble seeing the whole truth. Maybe he was too giving, too trusting, and unfortunately paid the price on the national stage? There’s a lesson in here somewhere, and Saturn was not done with Shohei just yet.
Shohei ended up having a great season (don’t ask me for any more details than that, I can’t give them to you), helping the Dodgers nab a spot in the playoffs and eventually the World Series. And as we know now, the Dodgers won, the best baseball player of our generation got his ring, everyone’s happy. Except it wasn’t quite that simple. Ohtani got injured early in the series, and it seems like teammate Freddie Freeman was the MVP of the postseason (once again, can’t tell you anymore than that, this is just what I gathered from being surrounded by 10000 TVs playing MLB Network all day). This was probably not the showing Ohtani wanted to have when he finally made it to the World Series. It seems a little wah wahhhh. Like, I got it, but not the way I wanted to get it. And where was Saturn during the World Series? 12° of Pisces! Saturn came back around and said not so fast Shohei, we still have some work to do.
Ultimately, Shohei Ohtani is still an incredible baseball player, but this season wasn’t without its challenges. Luckily, he’ll be free of Saturn’s heavy weight by the 2025 season (well, mostly, it’ll move on to square his natal Mercury). We’ll check in on him next year and Shohei, if you’re reading this and ever need an astrologer, HMU.
xx
ET