He said he felt a “true bond” with them, and they a “unique connectivity” with him, which is all quite lovely and so we’ll give Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels a moment to themselves.

OK, good?

Now, about the baseball.

Last seen, the Angels were a rather ordinary team, lugged along on the field and in the national consciousness by Mike Trout and … and … and, that’s about it. Their starting pitching was an assortment of body parts, not without promise but many of them recently repaired or fraying, and the lineup we already told you about, and all in all this was a franchise in need of something new, something fresh, something, OK, “true” and “unique.”

How about a 23-year-old from Japan who throws a hundred and hits dingers and also comes at a 25th-man’s salary? And how about if that 23-year-old prodigy handpicked them over six others, over 29 others, and not because of money or market, but because it just felt right?

That’s franchise-changing stuff right there.

In the same-ish market as the Los Angeles Dodgers, too, at a time when it may have felt like momentum might never swing south again, when in this town there were the Dodgers and there was Mike Trout and then there was basketball season.

So arrives Ohtani, and with him the hard questions about what he can be, and how soon, and how often, and for how long. He has expressed a desire to pitch and hit in the major leagues, and that’s in part what all the meetings this week were about, except out beyond the promises there are realities and hazy outcomes. As an Angel, under general manager Billy Eppler, manager Mike Scioscia, pitching coach Charles Nagy and hitting coach Eric Hinske, Ohtani must:

• Learn to pitch against big-league hitters.

• Learn to hit against big-league pitchers.

• Devise a schedule that drives both and hinders neither.

That’s a lot. Not impossible. But a lot.

The Angels, in turn, must:

Draw a strategy that, if nothing else, pulls 180 or so innings from Ohtani’s right arm, and does not somehow foul a rotation that may be fragile but has its strengths. If Ohtani’s bat comes, too, and he can be a semi-regular designated hitter in name and production, then they may celebrate that, too. The priority is settling Ohtani into regular strikes, regular innings, a regular schedule. The bat is secondary, a happy consequence to signing one of the better athletes on the planet.

So, how that might look.

In Japan, Ohtani generally pitched once a week. The schedule was lighter, given to more off days, and therefore was gentler on his arm. Ohtani once made as many as 24 starts in a season, and once threw as many as 160 innings. The major-league season typically demands more. The Angels could slot Ohtani at the top of their rotation or in among Garrett Richards, Andrew Heaney, Matt Shoemaker, Tyler Skaggs and Parker Bridwell; lose one and grind through a five-man rotation, keep them all and open with a six-man rotation. They could open with him on the tail end of the rotation, use him as a swing man, skip the occasional start when a day off allows, and so monitor his ability to recover and prepare and transition.

The latter option, along with the six-man option, leads then to the matter of developing Ohtani into a major league hitter, assuming he isn’t already one, and maybe he is. In his last full and healthy season in Japan, he batted .322 with 22 home runs in 382 plate appearances. On the days Ohtani is not recovering from a start or in the final stages of preparing for one, he could be the Angels’ designated hitter, which is not nearly the effort required to be an outfielder, presumably part of the reason Ohtani chose an American League team. Being the designated hitter and producing like one is different. Time, and at-bats, will tell.

The club’s regular designated hitter last year was Albert Pujols. He would play more first base. The outfield – Justin Upton, Trout and Kole Calhoun, left to right – remains intact. The guy giving up most of the at-bats is likely to be C.J. Cron. And the Angels still must address second base and third base.

The rest is nothing but time, beginning in Tempe, Arizona, in a couple months, furthering into a season in which the Angels could – and should – feel a whole lot better about. Eppler has done a magical job, bringing Ohtani to a place where dark Octobers had begun to feel inevitable. The rest is innings on Ohtani’s arm, and repetitions on his bat, and in a journey that could be – and should be – remarkable.

The details are coming. The story is coming. Soon enough, it’ll all be about the baseball.

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