A ONE-OF-A-KIND SHO
Nez Balelo has known Shohei Ohtani as well as almost anyone since the Japanese two-way star first arrived in the United States.
Balelo, the co-head of Creative Artists Agency’s baseball division, became Ohtani’s agent in the winter of 2017. He guided Ohtani through a fevered recruiting process that saw nearly every team try to sign him, watched Ohtani achieve his highest highs and was up close for his lowest lows—namely, the repeated injuries that limited Ohtani each of his first three seasons in MLB.
Ohtani had Tommy John surgery in 2018, knee surgery in
