Not that there was much doubt after the historic season he had, but Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani is the National League’s MVP for the 2024 campaign.
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America officially announced Ohtani has unanimously won the NL MVP award on Thursday. It marks 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 given 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 leagues.
New York Yankees star Aaron Judge won AL MVP honors, also unanimously.
Though he did not pitch at all in 2024 while recovering from surgery, Ohtani had a remarkable 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 benchmark with ease.
He ended the regular season with 59 stolen bases on 63 attempts, and he had 54 home runs. Before him, the closest player to hit the 50-50 mark was Alex Rodriguez — who had 42 home runs and 46 stolen bases in 1998.
Ohtani also had a career-high 130 RBI while holding a .390 OBP and a .310 batting average across 731 plate appearances. There was even one game in September where he had three homers, two stolen bases, five extra-base hits, six hits and 10 RBI. No player had ever posted those totals in any game across an entire career, yet Ohtani pulled it all off at once against the Miami Marlins.
But perhaps most importantly, Ohtani secured his first championship ring. Ohtani and the Dodgers beat 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 didn’t make the playoffs once. Though the Dodgers won, Ohtani was very quiet throughout the entire series. He went just 2-of-19 over the five World Series games, and he injured his shoulder while trying to steal second in Game 2. He didn’t miss a game, but Ohtani ended up needing surgery for a torn labrum.
Now that his MVP award is official, Ohtani is the first player in MLB history to have 50 home runs, 50 stolen bases, an MVP award and a World Series title all in the same campaign. All of that came not only after he signed a record $700 million deal, but after he was thrust into a preseason scandal after it was revealed that his translator and best friend was stealing 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 he needed surgery to repair a torn UCL in his pitching arm at the end of his run with the Angels. While it’s unclear what will happen throughout the rest of his career once he’s back to full strength as a two-way player, Ohtani capped one of the best overall seasons in baseball history while recovering from injury and putting a scandal behind him in the best way possible.
He’s now an MVP with a championship ring.