Not that there was much doubt after the historic season he had, but Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani is the National League MVP for the 2024 season.
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America officially announced Thursday that Ohtani has unanimously won the NL MVP award. It is his third MVP win and his first since joining the Dodgers. He previously won the AL MVP award in both 2021 and 2023, both of which were awarded to him unanimously. Ohtani is the first player in MLB history to win the MVP award unanimously more than once.
He also joins Frank Robinson as the only players to win the award in both competitions.
New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor finished second in the voting, receiving 23 of the 30 second-place votes. Ketel Marte of the Arizona Diamondbacks got five of the others, while Marcell Ozuna and Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves each got one.
New York Yankees star Aaron Judge won the AL MVP award, also unanimously.
Although Ohtani didn’t pitch at all in 2024 while recovering from surgery, he had a standout season with the Dodgers this summer. Ohtani became the first player in MLB history to join the 50-50 club, and then he flew past that once-improbable milestone with ease.
He finished the regular season with 59 stolen bases on 63 attempts and had 54 home runs. Before him, the player closest to 50-50 was Alex Rodriguez, who had 42 home runs and 46 stolen bases in 1998.
Ohtani also had a career-high 130 RBI while having a .390 OBP and a .310 batting average over 731 plate appearances. There was even one game in September where he had three home runs, two stolen bases, five extra-base hits, six hits and 10 RBI. No player had ever posted those totals in a game in his entire career, and yet Ohtani did it in one go against the Miami Marlins.
But perhaps most importantly, Ohtani secured his first championship ring. Ohtani and the Dodgers defeated the Yankees 4-1 in the World Series to claim the franchise’s eighth title, and their first since 2020. Ohtani spent his first six seasons in the league with the Los Angeles Angels and failed to make a single appearance the play-offs. . Even though the Dodgers won, Ohtani was very quiet throughout the series. He went just 2-for-19 over the five World Series games, and he injured his shoulder trying to steal second place in Game 2. He didn’t miss a game, but Ohtani ultimately required surgery for a torn labrum.
Now that his MVP award is official, Ohtani has become the first player in MLB history to reach 50 home runs, 50 stolen bases, an MVP award and a World Series title in the same campaign. All of that came not only after he signed a record $700 million contract, but also after he was embroiled in a preseason scandal after it was revealed that his translator and best friend had stolen millions of dollars from him.
Ohtani is expected to take the mound again next season, which will be his first time pitching for the Dodgers, after needing surgery to repair a torn UCL in his pitching arm at the end of his stint with the Angels. While it’s unclear what will happen for the rest of his career once he returns to full strength as a two-way player, Ohtani capped off one of the best seasons in baseball history while recovering from injury and putting a scandal behind him in the best way left. possible.
He’s now an MVP with a championship ring.
