This season wasn’t supposed to be about Shohei Ohtani’s stats.
After three years of increasingly dazzling performances on the field from the two-way player, Ohtani’s offseason jump from the Angels to the Dodgers introduced a wealth of intriguing new storylines surrounding the once-in-a-lifetime talent. But with elbow surgery late last season limiting Ohtani to DH duties in 2024, our collective instinct was to put our hopes for more unprecedented performances on hold for a year while he rehabbed for a return to two-way status.
Meanwhile, there was no shortage of compelling subplots to keep an eye on: A $700 million free agent contract with unprecedented deferrals. Ohtani’s fit into a lineup with two other MVPs in Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. How he would handle his DH responsibilities while also recovering from the second elbow surgery of his career. A gambling scandal involving his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, that rocked the baseball world just before Opening Day. The chance to play in October after six straight losing seasons in Anaheim. Working with another Japanese superstar in Yoshinobu Yamamoto. His wife! His dog! And so on.
With so much else going on in Ohtani’s debut season in Dodger blue, his raw statistical output — temporarily limited to that of a hitter (and one who doesn’t play defense) — likely seemed secondary.
At least that’s what we thought.
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Instead, Ohtani has found another way to make history. On Thursday against the Marlins at Depot Park, he became the first player ever to collect 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in an MLB season. And then he became the first player to collect 51 of each.
Ohtani’s gradual march toward an unfathomable milestone was capped by one of the finest offensive performances of his already legendary major-league tenure: a career-high six hits, with three home runs, two stolen bases and 10 runs batted in (a Dodgers record). Never before had a player accomplished all of those feats in a single major-league game, and Ohtani did it while simultaneously creating a club that didn’t exist before.
Never before has there been a player like Shohei Ohtani.
And so the first member of the 50-50 club is the same player who struck out 167 batters in 132 innings last year and is regrouping for a potential return to the mound this postseason. Ohtani’s 50th home run set a new franchise record for the Dodgers in a single season, surpassing Shawn Green’s 49 long balls in 2001 — which is practically a footnote.
Ohtani’s latest and greatest achievement was months in the making, but hardly a certainty until recently. With 14 homers and 13 stolen bases through late May, he was well on his way to the best power-speed season of his career, but not necessarily on track to do anything unprecedented. On June 16, Ohtani hit two homers in Kansas City to bring his season total to 19 homers and 15 stolen bases. At the time, 30-30 seemed likely, with 40-40 more likely.
But something else happened in that June 16 game that drastically changed the course of Ohtani’s season: Mookie Betts suffered a broken left wrist on a hit by pitch. It was clearly a blow to the Dodgers. But Betts’ two-month absence introduced an unexpected dynamic at the top of the Dodgers lineup: Ohtani as leadoff hitter.
Rather than keep Ohtani at number two and replace Betts with someone else, manager Dave Roberts opted to move his newest superstar to the top of the order. Ohtani had some experience in the role, having played 61 games as a leadoff hitter in his six years in Anaheim. It was a logical solution, albeit a seemingly temporary one, but still a significant adjustment for Ohtani to make on the spot after spending the first third of the season atop the lineup among his fellow MVPs.
Of course, he responded brilliantly. Ohtani seamlessly adapted to the new challenges—and opportunities—that come with leading the bat. He retained his slugging ways while beefing up his contributions on the basepaths to better embody his new role. For example, he hit eight home runs in his first 13 games as the Dodgers’ leadoff man, then stole 12 balls in July, the most he’d ever collected in a single month of his career.
August, though, is the month in which Ohtani really hits his stride — so much so that when Betts returned to the lineup, it was an easy decision for the Dodgers to keep Ohtani at leadoff. His 12 homers and 15 steals in August made him just the eighth player ever to have at least 10 homers and 10 stolen bases in a calendar month.
He joined the 40-40 club in emphatic fashion on August 23 against the Rays: After stealing his 40th base of the season in the fourth inning, Ohtani hit a walk-off grand slam for his 40th home run to secure the victory for Los Angeles. The first time any of the previous five members of the 40-40 club reached both milestones was Alfonso Soriano in 2006, when he stole his 40th base in the Nationals’ 148th game of the season. Ohtani did it in Game No. 129.
This breakneck pace opened the door for the unthinkable: a 50-50 season. As Ohtani had done so many times before in his career, the boundaries of what had previously been thought possible on a baseball field were shattered.
And so he went ahead and eventually made the impossible a reality.
