When Shohei Ohtani made the jump to Major League Baseball in 2018, he drew comparisons to Babe Ruth. Much like the New York Yankees Hall of Famer, Ohtani, then 23, projected to dominate from the mound and the batter’s box. A rare two-way star.
Turns out contrasting Ohtani with the Babe might have been selling him short.
Ohtani has a long ways to go before matching the counting stats Ruth produced across a lengthy career, but there’s a case to be made that he has already proven to be the better player.
Japan woke up to good news Friday as Shohei Ohtani became the first Major League Baseball player with at least 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season. (AP Video / Sept. 20, 2024)
Ohtani’s bid was strong enough after he became the first player in MLB history to win two most valuable player awards via unanimous vote. It was made even stronger on Thursday when the four-time all-star produced the sport’s first season with at least 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases.
History was made in breathtaking fashion. Ohtani went 6-for-6 with three homers, two doubles, 10 runs batted in and two stolen bases in a blowout win over the Miami Marlins. It was perhaps the best game in MLB history by someone who should now be considered its greatest player.
Not even Ruth had a stretch like this. He broke into the — majors as a pitcher, but after being traded from the Boston Red Sox to the Yankees in 1920 he transitioned to hitting full time. The seasons he is most remembered for started then, and over the next 13 years the Great Bambino pitched just five more times.
Ruth wasn’t really a true two-way star; he was a player who switched jobs. He enjoyed a few seasons as one of baseball’s top pitchers and then became an all-time bat. But with the exception of his final season in Boston, when he put up a 1.75 ERA with 29 homers and 113 RBIs, the skills didn’t overlap.
Entering this season, Ohtani had already shown he could excel at both. From 2021-23, Ohtani went 34-16 with a 2.84 ERA and 542 strikeouts. During that same time frame, he slugged 129 homers with a .978 on-base plus slugging percentage, second only to the Yankees’ Aaron Judge.
A serious elbow injury meant Ohtani would be limited to hitting in 2024. He had to take the year off from pitching while recovering from surgery and, because of that, reinvented himself as a player. Ohtani decided to find new ways to contribute, this time with his legs.Â
In August, Ohtani became the sixth player to hit at least 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season. Now he stands alone as a member of the 50-50 club, and he’ll soon become the first MVP to play exclusively at designated hitter.
Ruth still owns the better career. He pitched more than twice as many innings and had a lower ERA (2.28 vs. 3.01). The Yankees legend also holds the career edge in every major offensive category after 22 seasons.
Ohtani has a long way to go before he can reach that level, but what he has accomplished so far is unprecedented. Some call him a unicorn, but Anthony Castrovince, my former colleague at , : Ohtani’s better, because unlike those magical creatures he actually exists.
There are lots of Blue Jays fans who surely can’t help but wonder what might have been. Their team infamously believed it had a shot at signing Ohtani last winter before he agreed to a 10-year deal worth $700 million (U.S.) with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
When Ohtani stepped into the batter’s box at the Rogers Centre in April for the first time since The Decision, he was booed relentlessly. A minute later, he sent a ball over the wall in right field for his seventh home run of the season. The boos continued, but they lacked animosity because a player that talented, humble and respectful is almost impossible to hate.
Injuries can derail a career at any time, and as a pitcher and hitter Ohtani is more susceptible than most. It’s impossible to know how his body will hold up over time, but considering he’s 30 years old and still in his prime, the best might be yet to come.
That’s a tantalizing thought, because Ohtani has already had an impact on the game in ways never seen before. There have been players such as Ruth who dominated on both sides of the ball, but no one did it simultaneously until Ohtani, at least not to this degree. Who knows what he’ll accomplish next.
Ohtani had to take the year off from pitching because of injury, but he’ll be back on the mound in the spring. The quest to compile the best career in big-league history will continue. But from this vantage point, he has already proven to be the sport’s most talented player of all time regardless of what happens in the future.
Nobody has enjoyed a four-year run like this before. There is no comparable. There’s just one Ohtani, arguably the best to ever do it.
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