Rapsodo is a sports technology company that develops tracking devices that use camera and radar technology to help players measure hitting and pitching data. Many players and coaches in MLB, and NPB in Japan, use Rapsodo technology for player development and evaluation. The company also has a large user base in the amateur ranks and in softball.

The company has separate flight-tracking devices for hitting and pitching. In 2022, it released its Pro 3.0, a two-way device that combines hitting and pitching metrics into one machine. That sparked the idea to form a relationship with Ohtani, baseball’s only two-way player.

“We do pitching and hitting units for our product mix,” Katrina Hartwell, Rapsodo’s general manager for North America, told The Japan Times, “and when we came out with the Pro 3.0, which was our first unit where we include pitching and hitting in one specific piece of hardware … the CEO and members of the team talked about who would be the most iconic person to represent us for that space. And obviously, Shohei Ohtani, you know, the quintessential two-way player, the person that obviously kind of defines what we do from a technology perspective, came to the forefront.”

Ohtani, a two-time American League MVP, said in a news release announcing the deal that he was already a fan of Rapsodo technology.

“I had been using Rapsodo for a few seasons and thought it was such a great tool; I only wished I had started using it earlier,” Ohtani said in the release. “I think to myself, ‘If I had something like this during my Little League years, how much better could I have been now?’”

Hartwell said the endorsement showed the company is on the right track.

“I think it just verifies the technology that we have put in place and how long we’ve been in that space of being sort of the leader in sports vision technology,” she said. “So with that in mind, knowing that he actually started using our products when (they were) legacy products, before we actually had the Pro 3.0, where we had pitching and hitting in one … we date back to having him be an actual user of our product and a fan, I guess, since his days with the (Los Angeles) Angels.”

Rapsodo data is widely used around baseball. In a 2021 story on Baseball America’s website, the publication noted that 85% of its Top 500 MLB prospects use Rapsodo data for evaluation. The company also used its data to create Rapscore, a standardized evaluation tool scouts and players use to evaluate performance and development.

Hartwell said most of Rapsodo’s business comes from outside of MLB and that it works to keep some of its product lines accessible to those outside the pro ranks. The company, in its news release, claims over 175,000 players and 7,000 coaches use Rapsodo technology,

“Most of our business, honestly, is through academies, colleges, AAU programs and those things,” Hartwell said. “So we have, obviously, the high-end product like Pro 3.0 is most used with MLB, but it has come down into those academies and made our technology more accessible to more players for the player development and for coaches to work with players to help them improve their game.”

The Rapsodo website lists over 200 MLB players as pro staff. Ohtani, however, is the first technology ambassador.

“He’s a very unique person, right?” Hartwell said. “So he’s our first true technology ambassador. So this is unprecedented for our organization. We worked with a lot of different athletes, on the major league level, obviously through colleges and NIL (name, image and likeness) deals, etc., but this is sort of breaking new ground for us in this partnership and relationship.”

The deal, Hartwell said, also hints at the company’s global plans. Rapsodo already has a Japanese branch, and adding Ohtani may enhance its brand name in the country.

“It definitely was a part of our decision-making to bring Shohei Ohtani into our family basically as an ambassador, because we are globalizing our brand,” she said. “Japan is a big portion of our growth plans. We’ve established a beachhead because baseball is so important to the Japanese marketplace.

“That’s why this partnership obviously resonates not only in the U.S. and North America but really in Japan and globally. He is just an icon, beyond his nationality. So it was part of the decision-making that this actually will help all of our businesses.”

Ohtani spent his first five pro seasons in Japan with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. He was the Pacific League MVP in 2016 and made that season’s Best Nine team as a pitcher and designated hitter. He moved to MLB in 2018 and has amazed fans with his two-way skills. He was the American League MVP in 2021 and 2023 and has been a two-way All-Star the past three seasons. He signed a record-shattering 10-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers last offseason after spending his first six years in MLB with the Angels.

Ohtani is batting .368 with five home runs in 24 games this season at the plate. He is currently rehabbing from elbow surgery and will not pitch in 2024.

“On the batting side, I have been comparing the data to how I am feeling on those hits; if that data matches how I feel it should be, it helps me confirm my recovery,” Ohtani said in the release. “As for pitching, I check if my pitching data matches the intention that I am throwing it with. Being able to check the data helps smooth out my rehab process.”