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Everything about him is unanimous.
He’s the best player in baseball history. He just had the best offensive day in baseball history. He’s having the best offensive season in Dodgers history.
And when it comes to the National League’s highest honor, there no longer should be a debate.
Shohei Ohtani should be the unanimous most valuable player. Unquestionably. Undeniably. And any voter who thinks otherwise should have their credentials examined.
Read more: Shohei Ohtani does it! Dodgers star first to 50-50 mark in three-homer, 10-RBI day
Ohtani created his crowning moment Thursday afternoon in Miami when he became the first player in major league history to reach 50 homers and 50 steals in a season. But it wasn’t just that he did it, but how he did it, transforming crunch time into exclamation points.
He reached 50-50 with three home runs and two stolen bases and 10 RBIs in a pennant-race game with the entire baseball world focused on his every swing! And, oh yeah, he went six for six on those swings! And, incidentally, it was a win that clinched the Dodgers’ 12th consecutive playoff berth!
If that’s not an MVP-crowning moment, what is?
There has been talk that Ohtani shouldn’t win it because a designated hitter never has won it. Critics have charged that a player who is required only to use half of the skills required of an everyday player simply cannot be considered most valuable.
David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox had 47 homers and 148 RBIs in 2005 and didn’t win it. The next season he hit 54 homers and 137 RBIs and still didn’t win it.
His one flaw? He was a DH.
That first season, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez won it with 48 homers and 130 RBIs. The next season Minnesota first baseman Justin Morneau won it with 34 homers and 130 RBIs. Neither had the impact of Ortiz.
Historically voters have long scoffed at the dudes who only hit, and that’s been the case this year particularly in New York, where the locals have been pushing for Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor.
Yes, he’s been great offensively, joining the 30-30 club, only the third shortstop to do it for five seasons. And yes, defensively, he rates as the best shortstop in the league. All this, and he’s been carrying the Mets into the running for a wild-card playoff berth.
A great season but … seriously?
Ohtani just did something nobody in baseball history has matched, or ever will match, combining the power of a strongman with the skill of a sprinter, creating a complete hitter of the sort that the game never has employed.
He’s a DH not as in, designated hitter. He’s a DH as in, designated hell-raiser.
“That’s insane,” Max Muncy told reporters of Ohtani’s day after the Dodgers’ 20-4 victory over the Marlins at Miami’s loanDepot Park.
Mookie Betts could only laugh.
“I mean … it’s just funny. It’s amazing,” he said. “Really you can’t put it into words so you just kind of sit back and enjoy watching.”
Miguel Rojas had the same feeling with the opposite reaction.
“I almost cried, to be honest with you, because it was a lot of emotions, because of everything that happens behind the scenes that we got to witness every single day,” he said. “So it’s a pretty cool moment.”
A summer during which you’re so extraordinary your teammates don’t know whether to laugh or cry? Now that’s an MVP season.
Full disclosure: I didn’t see the 50th home run when it happened. My television was off. Ohtani stole his 50th base in the first inning, hit his 49th homer in the sixth inning, the Dodgers led 9-3, and I figured he would save his historic home-run swing for this weekend at Dodger Stadium. At the very least, the Marlins were going to quit pitching to him, right?
I stopped watching. When my phone blew up shortly thereafter, I was reminded of the first rule for those journalists fortunate enough to chronicle the daily miracle that is Shohei Ohtani.
You never can stop watching.
He hit his 50th in the seventh inning with an opposite-field shot that left anyone with an appreciation for the art of hitting in awe.
“In that situation, for him knowing that he’s right there on the edge of history and to somehow stay inside a pitch and hit it on a line to left-center and not try to get too big — you know he’s thinking about hitting a home run and he hits it 111 mph on a line the other way on a slider down and away,” Muncy said. “It’s just incredible.”
Ohtani has been incredible this entire season, from the moment he homered in his first spring game to entering the 40-40 club with a game-winning grand slam to homering on his bobblehead night after his dog, Decoy, delivered a perfect first pitch.
He’s succeeded in every big moment amid the greatest of expectations blanketed with the most onerous of pressure.
He’s had to deal with so much attention, the Dodgers have had to rearrange the press box to fit all the media. He’s had to deal with the theft of $16 million by longtime interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. He’s had to deal with every move causing a ruckus, even his bobblehead night causing incredible pregame traffic jams that hampered his teammates.
He’s dealt with so much, yet he keeps dealing, and dealing, and dealing.
Read more: How MLB and Dodgers are cashing in on Shohei Ohtani’s 50-50 milestone
“I can’t put a finger on it, and it’s uncanny,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I mean, there’s a handful of things that we hope he can kinda do something special, and there’s anticipation, and he comes through. It’s really uncanny.”
In a season filled with injury and misfortune, Ohtani’s swing and spirit have carried this team even without him ever wearing a glove.
The Dodgers would not win the division without him. The Dodgers might not have made the playoffs without him. He’s missed three games, and shown up big for 150 others, and exceeded even the most generous of predictions.
Dodgers fans looking for a chant to accompany him when he is welcomed home Friday now have one. It is a chant this town reserves for only the best and most beloved. Kobe Bryant once heard it. Shohei Ohtani will hear it now.
Nothing 50-50 about it. A full-throated 100%.
“M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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