Shohei Ohtani is out-of-this-world ridiculous. We already knew this, of course, but his exploits in Miami on September 19 — 6 for 6 with three homers, 10 RBI and two stolen bases — were the most emphatic reminder he could offer. That was the game he became the first MLB player in history to reach 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in the same season.
Of course it had to happen that way. No, he didn’t reach the plateau with something like one stolen base in an 0-for-4 game. He burst through the barrier with one of the greatest individual performances we’ve ever seen. What more is there for him to do?
Well, I suppose we could ask what more is there for him to do in the regular season?
He finished the 2024 season hitting .310/.390/.646 with 38 doubles, seven triples, 54 home runs, 130 RBI, 134 runs and 59 steals. Not only did he fly by the previously unprecedented 50-50 barrier, but only Luis Arraez (winner of the batting title at .317) prevented Ohtani from becoming the first NL Triple Crown winner since Hall of Famer Joe “Ducky” Medwick in 1937.
Ohtani will win his third MVP next month when the voting results are revealed. But, again, this is all regular-season stuff.
His next task is to wow us in the postseason. He’s unfortunately never had the chance before, but the Dodgers are heading there again after posting the best record in baseball.
They’ll start their postseason run with Game 1 of the NLDS on Saturday in Dodger Stadium. They’ll face the red-hot San Diego Padres.
It feels unlikely that Ohtani could ever live up to expectations in the postseason.
Then again, entering this season it would’ve sounded laughable if anyone suggested he’d go 50-50. Just as heading into 2021, it would’ve sounded laughable that Ohtani would start the All-Star Game as both a pitcher and DH. Or that he’d finish fourth in Cy Young voting while also hitting 34 homers.
It would be easy to grow numb to how impressive Ohtani is. After all, in this era of 24/7 news cycles and social media, it’s easy to get tired of fawning over a guy for four years.
Let us not take for granted the shattering of previous ceilings, though.
Go back about a decade and check the Nippon Professional Baseball stats. There was a 19-year-old kid who hit pretty well in 234 plate appearances while also pitching to a 2.61 ERA in 155 1/3 innings. What if someone told you this kid would come to Major League Baseball and do the following?
- Hit 46 homers with 100 RBI and 26 stolen bases while also going 9-2 with a 3.18 ERA and 156 strikeouts in 130 1/3 innings pitched in 2021.
- The next season, he had a 144 OPS+ with 34 homers and 95 RBI while winning 15 games and striking out 219 batters in 166 innings. He had a 2.33 ERA and 1.01 WHIP.
- In his third straight year of full-time double duty, he had a 185 OPS+ with 44 homers, 95 RBI, 102 runs, 20 stolen bases, 10 wins, 167 strikeouts in 132 innings with a 3.14 ERA.
- He’d then have the first-ever 50-50 season and nearly win the Triple Crown.
There’s so much in between that was left out for the purposes of brevity, too, but, even bits and pieces of this would have sounded not only unrealistic but simply outlandish. Was this scenario happening in a video game?
No, this is just Shohei Ohtani. He does things previously thought to be unrealistic.
Again, it’s entirely possible some people at this point just take his unique greatness for granted, or are numb to it or even get annoyed by it (note: Never hang out with that person). We shouldn’t let our mind take us down any of those roads. This is special. It isn’t just generational. I used the word “unique” above and that means one of a kind. There’s never been anyone like this. Ohtani has already been a full-time, two-way player for a longer period of time than Babe Ruth was and Ruth never stole more than 17 bases in a season.
I’ve been asked before if Ohtani is the greatest player ever. It started to happen frequently toward the end of this season. He needs more longevity before that threshold can be reached, but there shouldn’t be much arguing with this statement: He’s the most all-around talented player in baseball history.
For his next trick, he’ll take part in the postseason.
Major League Baseball has done its best to market the hell out of this guy the past four seasons. When he was mired in relative obscurity with the perpetually non-contending Angels, there was only so much the league could do when it came to an Ohtani-less October.
Here in 2024, he will finally play on the big stage. He’ll need some help from his Dodgers teammates in order to play on the biggest stage the sport has to offer — the World Series — but for now, we can dream on an Ohtani appearance in the playoffs and just what he’ll do with it.
The series against the Padres is a riveting matchup anyway, putting the best team in the second half (Padres) against the team with the best overall regular-season record in the Dodgers. It’s a series full of superstars on both teams, though Ohtani is the brightest of the bunch.
Given what we’ve seen from him in the regular season, would anything even be surprising?
Probably not, but we’re likely to see something special and it’ll be insanely fun to watch it unfold.
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