Shohei Ohtani to hit and pitch on Monday night

With a few games left in Spring Training, the Angels are still being experimental with Shohei Ohtani. He’s expected to start for the club on Monday at Dodger Stadium, and according to manager Joe Maddon, he’ll be in the lineup too.

This will be the second time this spring in which Ohtani starts and hits in the lineup. He did this over a week ago on March 21. He went 2-for-2 at the plate and allowed one run in four innings of work.

In eight innings on the mound this spring, Ohtani has allowed seven runs on 11 hits with 14 strikeouts. At the plate, he’s hitting a remarkable .571 with an OPS of 1.700. Ohtani leads the Angels with five homers this spring. Granted, it’s been a small sample size, but you can make the case that Ohtani has been the best hitter across all of baseball this spring.

When Ohtani did both positions last week, he hit leadoff for the Angels. We don’t know where in the lineup he’ll be today, but Maddon says it’ll likely be either in the No. 1 spot or the No. 2 spot.

Angels news and notes

• The Angels released their starting rotation through the first four games of the season. It will go Dylan Bundy, Andrew Heaney, Alex Cobb and Shohei Ohtani. After those four, Jose Quintana and Griffin Canning will follow.
• Angels agreed to a deal with free-agent reliever Noé Ramirez. However, it’s not expected to be a major-league contract
• The club made a surprising move, optioning reliever Ty Buttrey