When Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts had his hand, and season, fractured by a 98 mph fastball in mid June, the team turned to Shohei Ohtani to carry an even greater offensive burden. And Ohtani’s delivered in epic fashion, while using a bulky New Balance protective pad over his right batting glove that could prove a trendsetting item in MLB.
Throughout his first season with the Dodgers, Ohtani has donned the New Balance hand gear, which was custom made for the player at the center of the company’s MLB marketing campaign. It does not have a model name, nor is it planned to be put in stores for public purchase, according to a New Balance representative.
Ohtani’s heavy armor diverged from Betts, who didn’t use hand protection before his injury on June 16. Several other baseball players deploy hand pads that are slighter than Ohtani’s, including Trea Turner, the infielder who sustained a non-displaced fracture in his right index finger in 2019 as a member of the Washington Nationals.
When Betts was activated from the injured list before this Monday’s game, the Dodgers sparkplug appeared with a new Jordan brand hand guard, albeit one with less body coverage than Ohtani’s. Using the increased protection, Betts blasted a home run against the Milwaukee Brewers.
“We sometimes have to balance the protection that we can provide versus performance,” hand specialist Dr. Thomas J. Graham, a go-to surgeon for injured MLB athletes at the Jefferson and Lehigh Valley Health Network, said during a video call. “Some folks just do not want to wear the relatively cumbersome yet protective appliances.”
Ohtani’s hand guard, which he also used last year with the Angels, features far more padding than most rival products and could usher in a new era of protective attire in MLB after previous generations adopted large leg and elbow coverings—which MLB limited in size with a 2001 rule it has enforced loosely.
The Dodgers star’s stature as a perennial MVP candidate could also help New Balance make inroads among MLB fans. He recently released a signature fashion collection with the brand that includes baseball cleats, shirts, jackets and pants. He’s also on the verge of making his first MLB playoff appearance after toiling out of contention in six years with the Angels. The Dodgers have the third-best record in baseball and a two-game lead in the National League West entering Friday night.
A New Balance ad cut solely featuring Ohtani in its “we got now” marketing push is a mainstay on MLB TV streams and national baseball broadcasts. The custom hand guard is merely part of a larger rollout, but one that could prove trendy.
Of course, MLB hand guards are not impenetrable; Dr. Graham compared the situation to NFL players who wear increasingly robust helmets but still face substantial concussion risk. MLB players gripping wood bats remain vulnerable when 98 mph pitches buzz inside, hand cushion or not.
Still, research for better MLB equipment continues, with health clinics, franchises and brands such as New Balance in contact with one another.
“I don’t think you’ll ever going to come up with an ultimate protection,” said Dr. Graham. “[Unless] you tie a pillow around [your hand]. … But we are looking at the thickness of foam padding, what happens if you use carbon fiber, what happens if you use Kevlar?
“There’s a bunch of guys like me … trying to figure out if there’s something that would lessen [the risk].”
(This story has corrected the name of New Balance’s marketing campaign to “we got now” in the eighth paragraph. A prior version listed it as “we’ve got now.”)
