Shohei Ohtani has his third MVP. The Baseball Writers Association of America announced that Ohtani won the National League MVP in his first season as a Dodger. Francisco Lindor landed in second place, while Ketel Marte rounds out the top three. Ohtani received all 30 first-place votes.
Ohtani becomes the first full-time designated hitter to win MVP, as he was unable to pitch for the entire season after undergoing elbow surgery late last year. He joins Frank Robinson as the only players to win an MVP in both leagues and he’s only the 12th player in big league history to win the award three times in his career. Barry Bonds is the only player with more than three MVPs — he won the award seven times — so Ohtani has a chance to move into second place on the leaderboard as he goes into his age-30 season.
While Ohtani’s first two MVPs reflected his two-way ability, this year’s honors are solely about his offensive dominance. He had arguably his best hitting season ever. Ohtani hit a career-high 54 homers and drove in 130 runs. He posted a .310/.390/.646 slash line, leading the National League in both on-base percentage and slugging. Ohtani also paced the Senior Circuit in homers and RBI while ranking second among qualified hitters in batting average. Luis Arraez hit .314 to narrowly prevent Ohtani from winning the Triple Crown.
Monstrous as his power numbers were, Ohtani was also perhaps the league’s best baserunner. He stole 59 bases, trailing only Elly De La Cruz in that category. While De La Cruz was caught stealing 16 times in addition to his 67 successful attempts, Ohtani was cut down on just four occasions. No player in history had ever posted a 50-homer, 50-steal season. Ohtani broke both marks easily, getting there with one of the best single-game performances in history. He went 6-6 with three homers, two steals and 10 RBI in a 20-4 drubbing of the Marlins to establish the 50-50 club.
Ohtani helped the Dodgers to yet another NL West title — their 11th division crown in 12 years. Los Angeles went 98-64 to secure the top seed in the National League. Playoff performance is irrelevant to awards voting, which occurs at the end of the regular season. Ohtani was relatively quiet in his first October action, hitting .230/.373/.393 in 16 games. That didn’t hold L.A. back from knocking out the Padres, Mets and Yankees en route to their second World Series in five years.
For a while, it seemed as if Lindor would pose a real threat to Ohtani winning the award. He hit 33 homers and stole 29 bases with a .273/.344/.500 showing over 689 trips to the plate. As a plus defensive shortstop, Lindor obviously provided significant defensive value. Ohtani’s historic offensive achievements proved decisive in the end, though this is Lindor’s first top three MVP finish. Marte raked at a .292/.372/.560 clip with 36 homers to earn the highest MVP placement of his career.
Lindor received 23 of 30 second-place votes. Marte finished second on five ballots. Braves DH Marcell Ozuna and Cy Young winner Chris Sale each got one second-place nod themselves. Ozuna and Milwaukee catcher William Contreras rounded out the top five in overall balloting. Giants third baseman Matt Chapman received one third place vote, though he placed 11th in balloting overall. Bryce Harper, De La Cruz, Jackson Merrill, Willy Adames, Zack Wheeler, Mookie Betts, Jurickson Profar, Kyle Schwarber, Manny Machado, Freddie Freeman, Arraez, Paul Skenes, Teoscar Hernández, Ezequiel Tovar, Jackson Chourio and Dylan Cease all received votes.
Image courtesy of Imagn. Full voter breakdown from BBWAA.
ohtani should get to know Sotheby’s
when his bookies come to collect his $17 million debt again
he’s gonna need to auction off each of his MVP trophies to pay it off
John john john please. Nobody likes a sore loser
Yeah-with his post-he may lose access to an all time great name
Getting his trophy has been deferred until spring 2025.
Yeah, like Ohtani would need to auction stuff off to come up with $17M. He’s probably got that much in his couch cushions.
John you are 100% right. My question is has he learned English or is there going to be another interpreter to blame? in the Japanese culture, the underlings take the fall for their superior. Can’t wait to see what the sentence will be on December 20
Oldguy58 and johncoltrane agreeing about Ohtani not being deserving of the MVP while also throwing in things about Japanese culture and his English to boot… “oldguy” and “johncoltrane”… Hm…
Coltrane – be better!
Still feeling ashamed that you castigated him when he was the victim? You should probably send him an apology but instead you’ve doubled down on your ignorance. Nice
Cope and seethe. If only shohei collected rent from living in your head.. he’d be rich(er)..no deferrals needed for that check.
Bravo!
Congrats to Shohei (and Judge)
SoCal – Agreed! Both well deserved, and it’s nice to see Sale come in 7th.
Both 2024 MVP winners are very deserving regular season MVP’s, who disappeared in the post season.
One was hurt with a blown out shoulder less we forget
And posted an 1.100 OPS in the NLCS. It’s a stretch to say he “disappeared.”
Maybe not “disappeared” but he played well below his lofty standards. 1.060 OPS in the regular season, .767 in 16 postseason games. The stellar OPS in the NLCS was sandwiched between two bad series for him (.683 OPS vs the Padres and .385 vs the Yankees).
And that is why it is a team sport!
Ohtani deserved it this season. 50/50 is unprecedented. He likely will not pitch to start next season and the injury he had greatly impacts power at the plate, so 40 is in question, let alone another 50 HR season.
So with Ohtani out of the running, who is the front runner for 2025?
I would retort that he’s not out of the running… but I’ll lean towards Tatis having a dynamic ’25!
Gwynn – Tatis is certainly a worthy candidate, but I think next year will be Mookie’s Revenge.
He’s a 3-time runner-up that’s due to win his second MVP. Might have won this year if not for the injury.
“He likely will not pitch to start next season”
What are you basing this on?
Comments from the team that they will take it slow with his building back up to a full pitcher workload. I’d expect him to not pitch until June 1 based on what I’ve read.
Until someone else even comes close, I’m picking Ohtani to repeat.
I’ll leave it up to the Dodgers to determine when he can pitch again, but I will predict that we’ve very likely seen a record set that will never be broken by anyone, including by the player who broke it.
BlueSkies, Yeah, I agree. Unless a condition arises like this season that allows him to hit and run, but not pitch, there’s no way he steals as many bases as part of the rotation.
….at least until Commissioner Clown makes it even easier to steal bases, and juices the ball even more.
Or the bubble-brain stat collectors make it harder again.
Even when healthy he’s not going to be stealing that many bases while he’s pitching.
I would be surprised if he even gets another 40/40 season but he is the GOAT. So you never know.
Little Brother is Projecting
Mookie Betts.
Pete, As much as I love Betts as a player, all things being equal, Ohtani has to be the favorite between the 2. Ohtani had a 9.2 bWAR last season without the benefit of any defensive contribution. If he pitches even close to past performance that WAR should be even higher next season. Betts had a 10.2 bWAR at age 25, and had an 8.2 in 2023, but I don’t see him doing better than Ohtani going forward.
@pads Just so you will stop searching for ways to remove Ohtani from the gene pool, let’s just say Fernando Tatis, Jr., a Padre so you can feel better about yourself.
Slowly paving the way for separate players for offense and defense.
What did they have trouble counting the votes or something? Somebody ask for a re count?
Is the League counting office in Pennsylvania?
Unlike the state of California, which takes several weeks to count votes for political offices.
Touché! *hat tip*
don’t care what people say, the Earth is flat and NASA is a film studio. oh, and Ohtani is a lying gambler worse than Pete Rose ever was.
Proof? Or are you one of those Haitians-eating-pets theorists?
As long as he doesn’t bet on baseball, who cares.
Grats Ohtani, and nice season LA.
Why mention unanimous on Judge but not on Ohtani?
Um, they did?
Where?
In the first paragraph. Receiving all 30 first-place votes is winning unanimously.
Last line of the first paragraph.
“Ohtani received all 30 first-place votes.”
It may not have said that when first posted. They update these articles several times as more details come in.
I know. Ready is tough.
Randy Ready?
Underrated.
Ketel Marte…former Mariner. Good Lord, I hate the Mariners. And Ohtani winning NL MVP? Who would have thought? And the guy was injured. If only Ohtani was single-I’d wanna have his babies! Talkin about the best pitcher ever!!!
You a dude?
Great players, congrats to both. 50/50 wow
No brainer. Even though the first DH
This had to be the least suspenseful awards season in ages. AL ROY was the only one of the 8 awards that had any real uncertainty.
Duh.
Lindor better
Crack kills
lol
Lindor better than what?
congrats to Lindor.
2nd place MVP finish aint nothing to be ashamed of
he lifted the mets from bottom of the division to the playoffs
his HR vs ATL on the final day of the season was epic!
lets see if he can take the mets even further next year
a few more seasons like this and he might be HOF worthy someday
Don’t worry, John, things will get better.
Add in that he struggled mightily to open the season. His OPS didn’t reach .700 until the beginning of June.
It’s going to take a lot more than a few seasons to make him a hall of famer.
@dreif
thru 10 seasons= 248 hrs, 185 sb, 6 top 10 MVP finishes, a couple of gold gloves… he is without question on a HOF path so far. dont be a dope
Just empty!
I’m sorry. Maybe take up a hobby. Get a dog.
His ex girlfriend sold the dog.
…and the Hatians ate it!!!! j/k
This one, like most of the awards this year was anti-climatic. Congratulations on a well deserved MVP. Another person with one in each league.
Wow! What a surprise.
The two most anticlimactic awards of this season were the MVP’s. Never a doubt
Biggest surprise since the sun coming up this morning!!
You forgot to mention that he is the first to win three unanimous MVP votes
The 2023 and 2024 seasons are the only times both MVP winners have been unanimous. It should have happened in 1967. Orlando Cepeda was unanimous in the NL. Triple-Crown winner Carl Yastrzemski should have been unanimous in the AL, but a Minnesota writer inexplicably voted for Twins’ utility man Cesar Tovar.
Thanks for the (hidden) info, and for the record who was the votar. Cool post.
“votar” was some guy named Frank Tovar.
The Tovar voter was Max Nichols.
Lindor should have won this HANDS DOWN.
Of course he should have, young fella. Go have a soda pop and calm down.
So Ohtani has to be in the conversation as the greatest….well,…thing, we have ever seen in MLB? The greatest something? Not the greatest player as he’ll never accumulate enough value to match Bonds or Ruth type of thing. But holy cow, it is extraordinary has amazingly great this guy is.
Can’t pitch one year? No worries, I’ll throw in a 50/50 season and lead the league in WAR on hitting alone. Seriously, no one else ever could do what this guy does. I wouldn’t put it past this guy to focus on winning the Cy next year just because he hasn’t done that yet..
Greatest player. Ruth just wasn’t the pitcher in comparison to his peers that Ohtani is (without adjusting for the era he pitched in, he looks like an ace), nor did he pitch well into his career. Which is not to say Babe Ruth wasn’t an impressive player, he simply wasn’t as good of a pitcher as Ohtani currently is. Then you factor in Ohtani does both at the same time.
I have no problems saying that Ohtani’s the greatest to ever do it. I don’t need longevity to say it, just the fact that he’s done it as long as he has and at the level he does it is plenty.
I think also the way other great players talk about him is what makes it so easy. Mookie Betts is an incredible player, an incredible athlete, and he speaks of Ohtani with awe.
“Which is not to say Babe Ruth was not an impressive player?” Ya think?
Sure could give Bonds a run for his money! Ruth, ??. He pitcher too! But I give the baserunning to Ohtani!
As I said, Ruth was a pretty good pitcher in a very pitcher-friendly era. But Ohtani is probably a top-10 starter in MLB, whereas I’m not sure Ruth ever was, despite the Babe being focused on pitching primarily in his time.
Maybe Ruth could have done both to same same degree that he did them separately. But what we do know is that there have been some attempts by other players to be adequate at both and they all failed, and that was again to be mostly bench pieces and relievers at the same time. Ohtani bats every day and is an elite starting pitcher every five or six days.
differentbears,
Ruth was one of the best pitchers in MLB during his time. He had a 158 OPS+ in 1916, and averaged a 137 OPS+ over the 3 year span of 1916-1918. He also hit when he wasn’t pitching. Between 1915 and 1919 he averaged 77 games playing the OF, and averaged a 191 OPS+ over that span.
One of the great myths of baseball is the Yankees took a pitcher and turned him into the greatest hitter of his era. But Ruth was in decline as a pitcher even with the Sox, They didn’t have the knowledge of sport’s medicine, and it was clear his days as a pitcher were numbered. In 1919, playing for the Sox, he started only 17 games (he had 40 GS in 1916), and played 130 in the OF.
A big part of the surge in hitting numbers was his moving from Fenway, where RF was immense. This was prior to the bullpens in RF, and even with them, Fenway is still tough for LHHs and HRs. But Yankee Stadium, with it’s short porch, and cheap HRs, in RF, really boosted his numbers.
All that said, I still think what Ohtani has done, and continues to do, has clearly eclipsed Ruth. It could be argued that he’d been eclipsed by others like Willie Mays, but not as clearly as Ohtani.
I heard ruth hit more hrs than all but 1 entire team. Hrs became so popular they changed the ball so more people could hit them.
And I seen the video of ruth. Those lil legs moved fast! Heck of a base runner.
One year he lead baseball in era. Not buying he wasn’t top 10 best.
The game was viewed much differently back then. Players were discouraged from trying to hit HRs, and Ruth was criticized early in his career for hitting them. They were considered to be a lucky result, and would lead to less overall production. Teams were more interested in BA; moving runners up and scoring them. Trying for a base hit was considered a more reliable approach than swinging for the fences, and maybe striking out.
It’s highly doubtful that Ruth provided much value, if any, on the base paths. Those quick legs you saw are probably more about the speed of the film than Ruth himself. As a matter of fact, during Ruth’s time, MLB allowed a courtesy runner. Another player could be sent in to run for Ruth, and Ruth would be allowed to stay in the game. The courtesy runner was used often for Ruth. The courtesy runner is actually still a part of baseball’s rules, but it was amended in that it could only be used if the opposing manager agree, which ended its use.
Must not had strength coaches or personal trainers. I thought he kept those legs little so he could move them incredibly fast. Since he didn’t even have to run he could have bulked up and hit way more hrs. Still even when hrs became the thing to do he was near top of the list or #1 in hrs. Yeah dozen times leading hrs. 10 after it became popular. Not saying Ohtani is or isn’t better. Different times. They are 1a and 1b to me.
Easily. Ohtani is playing against the best competition from around the world. Ruth simply did not.
Comparing that era to the modern era is impossible for that reason.
Congrats to Ohtani.
We’re watching something special here.
If he keeps pace of putting up these superstar seasons or even anything close, Ohtani is ending up in the Hall of Fame.
Uhhh…..he’s in bus territory now. Unless he gets caught doing horrible things to other humans, he’s already in.
He might challenge Bonds for the most MVPs.
I just wish he played for a different team.
Name and shame whatever writer decided to give Marcell Ozuna(!!!) a 2nd-place vote over Lindor. Fine with Ohtani winning it over him, but Ozuna was another DH-only player who had a merely “very good” season compared to Ohtani’s all-timer.
Ozuna was neck and neck with Ohtani, if not leading at times thru July in case you aren’t aware. Thus being in consideration MVP, much less consideration for 2nd place votes smh….but even as a Braves Homer I recognize someone was stuck on those first 3-4 months, cuz he hit a wall and couldn’t carry the teams offense anymore.
Why do you not refer to Ohtani as the “unanimous” winner but do so for Judge? Curious.
Nitpicking!
But consider, he is completely nit free.
It is an odd omission.
I don’t think there is nefarious intent. Just a peculiar choice.
If Ohtani didn’t hit the historic 50/50 one man club and had a 40/40 year do you think Lindor would’ve won the MVP? Wondering what everyone’s take is.
It doesn’t matter because that’s not what happened.
No.
NYCPetrovic,
Lindor had a 7.0 bWAR, and a 138 OPS+.
Ohtani had a 9.2 bWAR, and a 190 OPS+.
A big plus for Lindor is he played a critical defensive position. A negative for Ohtani is there was no defensive contribution. But that also means Lindor got a boost in his WAR from his D, while Ohtani got none. I’d have to say, even if Ohtani fell short on the 50/50 thing, he’s still the obvious MVP.
Can we wall off ny like eascape from ny? You guys are out of your mind. Ohtani lead baseball according to reference in a dozen standard stats. Lindor zero. How many stats did he beat Lindor in? Not close.
Best MVP money can buy for America’s greediest and most desperate team to win their first legit title since 1988.
A commitment to winning is greedy?
According to the official record book, they have won two titles since 1988.
Especially since they aren’t actually going to pay for it until year 2197.
Anyone think this guy is ever gonna slow down? His numbers are unreal.
Nope. Will play into his 90s or 100s. Won’t slow down. Will just collapse dead during a hr trot or something.
I am going to be irrational for once then back to reality.
A DH winning the first MVP in baseball history in the NL unanimously is an abomination. Pete Rose is churning in his urn. There have been far more less principled votes among the writers and this should’ve been one of them. Give me whatever stats you want but he’s only 2/3rds as valuable as a player who is in the field every day.
I normally look at % of runs scored + driven in – HR/ total team runs scored. Assuming the competition plays the field. Ohtani accounts for 24% and Lindor 21%. Had Lindor not underperformed April / May he would’ve won. Still hoped the writers voted for anyone but a full time DH with questionable gambling associate in the NL. If there are no more principled old school writers out there let the steroid era stars in the HOF. Bonds at least had to patrol the field on roids.
Yeah, irrational. 9.2 bWAR as a DH. Had he played the field, he could’ve easily eclipse 10 with his athleticism. There have only been sixty 10+ bWAR seasons in history.
Congrats to Ohtani!
… Wait until you see what Skenes can do with a bat …..