For the first six seasons of Shohei Ohtani’s Major League career, October was pretty much the only month in which we it didn’t talk about him. Throughout the spring and summer, wherever his team stood in the standings, Ohtani’s routine historic performances on the field demanded attention and inspired awe throughout the league. But ultimately, the Angels would be mathematically eliminated and our focus would shift to the teams still in contention for the Commissioner’s Trophy.
Once the World Series concluded each year, Ohtani’s relevance resurfaced during awards season as he collected his annual slate of awards, sparking discussion about the fact that we don’t yet have the most talented player in the world on the biggest stage in baseball. “How cool would that be?” we thought to ourselves, imagining Ohtani in the postseason. “Maybe – hopefully – someday.”
That collective curiosity about what it would be like to see Ohtani play in meaningful games was only heightened by his epic performance in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. A tournament that started with spectacular pool play in his native Japan ended with a strikeout in Miami from then-Angels teammate Mike Trout to capture the championship for Samurai Japan against a star-studded Team USA. Even though it happened in March and not October, it was immediately clear that Ohtani’s stunning sweeper that knocked out Trout would be repeated for years to come, a highlight that would last for generations.
Still, we longed for more. And for a brief period during his final season in Anaheim — the Angels were 56-51 at the end of July 2023 and aggressive buyers at the trade deadline — it seemed likely that Ohtani would finally reach the MLB postseason. Then the Angels collapsed catastrophically, confirming that Ohtani’s sixth and final season in Anaheim would also be of the losing variety.
And so Ohtani headed to free agency almost a year ago, looking for his first winning MLB season, let alone a trip to the playoffs. While his time on the open market had its fair share of drama, he ultimately ended up where most expected: with the Dodgers for a record-breaking amount. It wasn’t just that LA had the deepest pockets and played not far from where Ohtani already lived. This was also a team that had made eleven straight postseasons. From the moment Ohtani donned his new thread during his introductory media conference, it was virtually guaranteed that we would see him in the postseason the following fall, a certainty that no other team could provide.
What wasn’t certain, however, was what would happen once Ohtani and the Dodgers actually arrived in October. Only three of the team’s eleven consecutive trips to the playoffs had resulted in a berth in the World Series, and the Dodgers were bounced in the first round the previous two years. No matter how much talent the organization aggressively assembled, the brutal parity of the postseason had routinely derailed the Dodgers’ championship aspirations sooner than expected.
After all those recent near misses, the Dodgers entered 2024 hoping Ohtani could contribute to a more successful playoff run.
It was clear early in his professional career that Ohtani was not only comfortable in high-stakes situations, but thrived in them. While the World Baseball Classic may have been our first glimpse of this dynamic state, it certainly wasn’t the first time Ohtani played in high-pressure games.
Before arriving in the MLB, Ohtani became a special sensation playing in Nippon Professional Baseball, the second-best league in the world and a league with tremendous history and cultural relevance in baseball-obsessed Japan. The highlight of Ohtani’s NPB career came in 2016, when he put together his first full season as a two-way player, winning league MVP and helping the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters to the Japan Series title. That included Ohtani’s walk-off single in Game 3 of the best-of-seven against Hiroshima, which helped spark a comeback after the Fighters dropped the first two games of the series.
It was no surprise that when Ohtani made his MLB postseason debut with the Dodgers, he made an immediate impact. In his second at-bat of NLDS Game 1 against San Diego, Ohtani poked a game-tying, three-run homer over the right-field fence, injecting energy into the Dodgers’ dugout and crowd after they fell into an early deficit . Although he was relatively quiet for the remainder of the series against the Padres, Ohtani fired up again against the Mets in the NLCS, reaching a ridiculous 16 carries in six games (a franchise record) to wear down a New York pitching staff that could. LA’s overwhelming offense cannot be stopped.
With each successive match becoming more and more important, Ohtani continues to raise the bar. Through eleven games in October, he slashed .286/.434/.500. His production with runners in scoring position is almost too good to be true: Ohtani went 6-for-9 in October and 18 for his past 23 at-bats through mid-September, with an astonishing 28 runs batted in during that span.
Next up for Ohtani and the Dodgers are the Yankees, the only baseball team with as much, if not more, star power as Los Angeles. One of those opposing stars is Juan Soto, who has also played a major role in his team’s progress to and through the postseason in his first year with his club. Soto’s trade with the Yankees and Ohtani’s signing with the Dodgers — both of which occurred in the span of a week in December — were the defining trades of the past offseason and two of the most shocking events in recent memory.
Back then, however, the tone surrounding each move was different.
For the Yankees, coming off their worst season in nearly three decades, sending a trade to San Diego to acquire Soto with just a year left on his contract was an urgent maneuver designed to cement their status as one of the strongest teams in the competition to recover after an unusual period. bad 2023. In that case, it felt like the Yankees needed Soto more than he needed them.
Conversely, the Dodgers adding Ohtani to a roster that already featured multiple MVPs felt more like the ultimate flex of baseball luxury than something the team desperately needed. The Dodgers offered Ohtani the opportunity to play in a winning situation for the first time as a major leaguer, but without him they were contenders.
It turns out the Dodgers needed Ohtani more than we ever imagined. When Mookie Betts missed two months due to a broken hand, Ohtani moved into the starting spot and took his game to a whole new level, leading to unprecedented power-speed production that culminated in the first 50 HR/50 SB season. A barrage of injuries also left what was considered a deep pitching staff in disarray, increasing the pressure under Ohtani to outplay the opposition for extended periods of time. The two-time MVP delivered every inning, playing his best ball in September and helping the Dodgers beat San Diego for another NL West title.
And so, while the Dodgers provided the stage and supporting cast that Ohtani was looking for, he was a driving force behind this World Series performance. It took seven years to finally get to this point, but now he and the Dodgers are four wins away from their ultimate goal.
Even considering how long his contract is, there are no guarantees as to how many more times Ohtani will get to this point. That’s all the more reason to appreciate how quickly it came together and enjoy the spectacle now before us: Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers in the World Series against the New York Yankees.
