If you were to list pitcher/hitter/demigod Shohei Ohtani’s accolades through his first five years in the MLB, it would take you 3-5 business days.
First ever two-time UNANIMOUS MVP.
Most strikeouts for a player with at least 100 home runs in his career, passing Babe Ruth.
First player in AL history to hit 30 home runs and steal ten bases in the first 81 games of a season.
Second Japanese MVP ever.
You could go on and on listing the stats for Shohei Ohtani, but the scary part of describing the Japanese sensation is this:
It won’t be enough.
Ohtani has captivated the hearts and minds of avid MLB fans and casual watchers alike, through his dominance on the field and kindness off of it. In an era of generational talents and one of a kind players, Ohtani truly fits the bill. He is one of a kind, and might be getting better.
Let’s start on the field, with his 2023 season. Ohtani hit 44 home runs and stole 20 bases, posting career highs in batting average, OPS and slugging percentage. Ohtani doesn’t just hit the ball—he tattoos it. If you were to stand on Venice beach during an Angels home game, you just might hear an Ohtani homer leave the stadium. His swing is so simple; it looks less like a baseball swing and more like Paul Bunyan swinging an axe through a redwood tree. Yet, there’s beauty in his simplicity. You can’t help but giggle like a small child when he hits 493-foot homers (he actually did that, the ball sounded like it came from out of an old-timey pirate cannon). In 2023, Ohtani finished in the top ten in every major category outside of hits in the Major League. You can’t pitch around him because if he gets on base he’s a threat on the basepaths, but you throw to him he might hit the ball 500 feet. You get the problem now, don’t you?
Depending on who you ask, however, Ohtani might just be better as a pitcher. He finished 2023 with a career high ERA with 3.14, and 167 strikeouts. As impressive as it is to watch him hit, seeing him mow down opposing batters with a variety of fastballs and splitters makes you wonder how he can do it. He has a gas tank comparable to some of the best aces in the sport, and his daily outings seem more Herculean than mere mortal. This year, he pitched a complete game shutout against the Detroit Tigers in the first leg of the doubleheader. In the second leg, he hit two homeruns. His feats of might seem more out of folktales and fables old men would tell about baseball players of yore, rather than a guy that we see doing this in real time, in real life.
Which brings us to the next most fascinating thing about Ohtani: he is box office material, not only in America but around the world. The World Baseball Classic was Ohtani’s playground, in a showcase of the world’s best Ohtani shined the brightest. People watched, whether it be from home or in the stands.
And when I mean people watched, I mean people WATCHED.
According to Forbes, the 2023 World Baseball Classic semifinal between Japan and Italy rated at a 48.7 in Japan—the most watched game in World Baseball Classic history. In fact, the four most-watched games in WBC all included Japan and they all came from 2023, with Ohtani on the team. The final, pitting the United States against Japan, was the most watched WBC game in US history. When did the game peak, viewership wise? When Ohtani faced Angels teammate Mike Trout in the bottom of the ninth, with two outs remaining and Japan with the lead. How did I know that? Because I was one of the 6.9 million watching, streaming it from my phone in the gym because nobody else had it on the TV. Ohtani is a show all in himself, and it’s warranted due to his play.
You know who Tungsten Arm O’Doyle is? If you’re on social media and follow baseball even a little bit, you should. A tweet mentioning a fake name, Tungsten Arm O’Doyle, gets retweeted every time Ohtani does something crazy. There are two reasons why that happens, but the first one is because Ohtani is doing something we haven’t seen since the invention of color tv. It’s one of the most viral tweets ever, and Ohtani is the reason why it comes up. We’re seeing a player do things that the sport hasn’t seen since Babe Ruth, but this time we have social media to truly keep track of it.
Now, the second part of why that tweet goes viral is simple: the Angels always lose. Ohtani, despite all of his heroics, cannot play all nine spots on the diamond at the same time (although if you asked him he probably could). Ohtani has never been to the playoffs, the lone blemish on what looks to be a Hall of Fame resume. Which is what makes 2024 so interesting for Ohtani.
Shohei Ohtani is currently a free agent, and if you look at the current salary projections for his new contract, it would make you lose your mind. Ohtani is on track to be the first athlete in Big Four (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) history to have a single contract worth half a billion dollars, and if it weren’t for a Tommy John surgery Ohtani had that knocks him out of pitching in 2024, it could be even more. ESPN did a feature on Ohtani’s projected contractual value, and the number came out to a staggering $624 million over 11 years. An unprecedented thought before Ohtani, yet now $600 million might not be enough.
Yet, if you asked Ohtani, he would brush it off. He’s much more comfortable dapping up his dog after winning MVP. He’s an unassuming superstar, as much Clark Kent as he is Superman, and that’s going to keep leading him to unprecedented records and accolades.
Maybe even some more Tungsten Arm O’Doyle tweets too.
