2024 review: Shohei Ohtani

After signing the largest contract in baseball history, Ohtani’s first year with the Dodgers was a massive success.

Expectations were sky high when the Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani to the largest contract in the history of the sport, and he delivered in spectacular fashion in his first year, winning a championship and will soon collect his third MVP award.

Many things about Shohei Ohtani are incredible, because he’s usually both an excellent hitter and an excellent starting pitcher simultaneously. But even in a year he wasn’t pitching after September 2023 elbow surgery, Ohtani still found a way to add a brand new dimension to his game, and it was electrifying.

The bar for the Ohtani era in Los Angeles was set during his introductory press conference in the center field plaza at Dodger Stadium last December, after he signed a 10-year contract totaling $700 million. Whether in total dollars, or even taking the present value after all the deferrals ($460.8 million), it was the biggest baseball contract in history.

The Dodgers added double-digit different Japanese sponsors this season, in case there were any doubts about their ability to make those contract payments.

Ohtani could have gotten that money or something close enough to it from a number of teams, but at that introductory press conference noted another reason why he picked the Dodgers:

“There’s a lot of reasons [why I chose the Dodgers], but one thing that really stands out in my head is when I had the meeting with the Dodgers, the ownership group,” Ohtani said. “They said when they look back at the last 10 years, even though they’ve made the playoffs every single year, and won a World Series ring, they consider that a failure. When I heard that, I knew that they were all about winning.”

Winning was abundant for the Dodgers in 2024, even though their 98 wins marked the first full season for them without triple-digit wins since 2018. Those 98 wins were still good enough for the best record in MLB, giving the Dodgers home-field advantage in all three of their postseason series, all the way to a World Series title.

Lost in translation

We know how the story of the first season ended, but after the very first game of 2024 things were very much in doubt. While the Dodgers were playing in Seoul, South Korea to open the regular season, on March 20, stories came out that revealed massive gambling losses by Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s longtime interpreter and friend.

Mizuhara was found to have lost over $40 million in gambling on sports, which understandably started an MLB investigation into the matter. The week in between the two games in Seoul and the start of the domestic portion of the regular season carried at least some worry that everything could be upended almost before it even started.

Ohtani in a statement maintained he never bet on baseball and had no knowledge of Mizuhara’s gambling losses, and a federal investigation corroborated that. Mizuhara was found to have stolen nearly $17 million from Ohtani, and in April U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said, “I want to emphasize this point: Mr. Ohtani is considered a victim in this case.”

On June 4, Mizuhara pled guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of tax fraud, and Major League Baseball soon after closed its investigation into Ohtani. Mizuhara will be sentenced on December 20.

Back to business

If Ohtani was distracted at all by the hullabaloo surrounding Mizuhara, he never showed it publicly, and it’d be hard to argue that it adversely affected his performance on the field.

Ohtani led the National League in home runs, which could have been expected given that he led the American League the year before, and averaged over 41 home runs over his final three years with the Angels. But his 54 homers this season also set a Dodgers record, with number 17 the 17th different player in franchise history to hold or share that mark.

“He’s the best player ever,” Walker Buehler said after an Ohtani home run during the season. “They gave him twice as much money as anyone’s ever made in this game, and he keeps proving why we did that.”

On April 21, Ohtani hit his 176th career home run to pass Hideki Matsui for most MLB home runs hit by a Japanese player. Ohtani finished the season with 225 homers.

“He’s still hitting bombs,” former Dodger Matt Kemp marveled about Ohtani in August. “‘Oh I can’t pitch, alright I’m gonna hit 50.’”

But it was what he did on the bases that vaulted Ohtani to a new level offensively. Through the end of June, a tad over halfway through the season, he had 16 stolen bases, well on his way to top his previous career high of 26, set three years prior with the Angels. That would have been notable enough, considering the most stolen bases during a 50-homer season was only 24, by Willie Mays in 1955 and Alex Rodriguez in 2007.

Once the calendar turned to July, Ohtani just kept running and never stopped. Prior to this season, he stole more than five bases in a month twice in six year, topping out at seven steals in Augusts 2021 and 2023. In 2024, Ohtani stole eight bases in May then got to double digits and then some in July, August, and September, just the third Dodgers player ever to steal at least a dozen bases in three straight months.

Those steals quickly caught up to the home runs, and on August 23 Ohtani stole his 40th base and hit his 40th home run in the same game. Just the seventh player ever with a 40-40 season, Ohtani got to the milestone 19 games faster than anyone else. How he clinched membership showed a flair for the dramatic, hitting a walk-off grand slam to beat the Rays.

Ohtani hit 12 home runs and stole 15 bases in August, just the eighth 10-10 month in MLB history and the first 12-12 month. Then he hit 10 more home runs and stole 16 bases in September, making him the first person with multiple 10-10 months in a career, let alone in the same season.

Prior to this season, the highest number of both home runs and stolen bases achieved in the same year was 42, by Rodríguez in 1998 with 42 homers and 46 steals for the Mariners. Ohtani blew past that, founding the 50-50 club, and he finished with 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases.

The numbers are eye-popping.

Ohtani finished second in the majors in both home runs (four behind Aaron Judge) and stolen bases (eight behind Elly De La Cruz), just the third player to finish in the top two in both along with Honus Wagner in 1908 and Ty Cobb in 1909, who represent 40 percent of the inaugural class of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Besides setting the Dodgers home run record, Ohtani had a franchise-best 99 extra-base hits and set Los Angeles Dodgers marks with 411 total bases and 134 runs scored. Those extra-base hits and total bases were the most by any major leaguer since 2001.

Ohtani hit 28 home runs and stole 31 bases at Dodger Stadium, and had 26 homers and 28 steals on the road. Prior to this year, nobody ever had a 25-25 season at home or away, and Ohtani did both. He is the only MLB player ever with a 30-30 half-season, reaching both 30 homers and 30 steals in as few as 74 games, doing so twice in overlapping stretches.

Ohtani’s 59 steals set an MLB record for a player born in Japan, three more than Ichiro Suzuki in 2001.

“It’s a surprise, given Ichiro’s foot speed and that he was a dynamic base stealer,” said manager Dave Roberts, whose 49 steals in 2006 has him third on that Japan-born MLB list. “But shoot man, Shohei, he’s taking down a lot of records.”

Prior to 2024, every Dodgers designated hitter in the regular season and postseason combined for 2,741 plate appearances and 14 stolen bases. Ohtani had two months with more steals this season.

Ohtani led the National League in several categories this season, and along the way became the first Dodger to win four different player of the week awards in the same year. He also was NL player of the month in September. Next week, he’ll win MVP too.

In the clutch

There was some concern early in the season when Ohtani wasn’t getting results with runners in scoring position. He was chasing a little more at times, but ultimately those numbers came around thanks to a ridiculous finish.

From September 19 through the NLCS, Ohtani was an absurd 18-for-23 with runners in scoring position, hitting .783 with seven home runs, two doubles, four walks, and 28 RBI. That included the go-ahead RBI single in the Dodgers’ division-clinching win over the Padres on September 26.

“It’s been insane how good he’s been with runners in scoring position,” Roberts said during the National League Division Series. “The key is to get those opportunities because, yeah, when he does get those opportunities you feel like he’s going to cash them in.”

After deflating NLDS defeats to teams with far worse records two years in a row, the Dodgers appeared to continue the pattern when they fell behind the Padres 3-0 in the first inning of Game 1 of the 2024 Division Series. But in the second inning, in his second-ever MLB playoff plate appearance, Ohtani obliterated a Dylan Cease fastball for a three-run home run that not only tied the game but also provided a symbolic reminder that, with Ohtani and several others around him, the Dodgers offense was a force to be reckoned with.

The Dodgers won that NLDS game and averaged 5.94 runs per postseason game on their way to a championship.

Ohtani also proved durable, playing in a career-high 159 games, which led the Dodgers. After sitting in the second game of a doubleheader on May 28 while dealing with a bruised hamstring, he started the Dodgers’ final 105 games of the regular season, and started all 16 games in October as well.

He didn’t steal a base during the postseason and was thrown out in both attempts, notable considering he stole 36 bases in a row after his final regular-season caught stealing on July 21. But it was the second October caught stealing that was the most painful, in the seventh inning of Game 2 of the World Series. Ohtani dislocated his left shoulder on the slide, and played through it, going 1-for-11 with a walk over the final three games in New York.

Ohtani had surgery on November 5 to repair a torn labrum in that left shoulder. He’s expected to be ready to go in spring training as a hitter, while his pitching rehab will likely delay his mound return until after opening day.

2024 particulars

Age: 29

Stats: .310/.390/.646, 54 HR, 59 SB, 134 R, 130 RBI, 181 wRC+, 9.2 rWAR, 9.1 fWAR

Salary: $70 million (of which $68 million was deferred)

Game of the year

The most home runs in a 50-steal season used to be 24, and the most steals in a 50-homer season used to be 41. But Ohtani blew past all of those with his 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases. Just like his 40-40 milestone, Ohtani got to 50-50 and then some in the same game.

On September 19 against the Marlins in Miami, Ohtani entered the day with 48 home runs and 49 steals, then flew home with 51-51. He had six hits, including the first three-homer, two-steal game in MLB history, drove in a Dodgers-record 10 runs, and amassed 17 total bases (he also hit two doubles and a single).

Ohtani did all this in a win that clinched a Dodgers playoff berth, the first time in seven years in the majors that Ohtani reached the postseason.

Joe Davis after Ohtani’s third home run of the game, Ohtani’s 51st home run of the season, was hyperbolic in his call: “Oh my gosh, Shohei Ohtani, the greatest day in baseball history.”

But there was some truth to it.

Roster status

Ohtani is signed for nine more seasons, through 2033. He’ll return to his two-way status in 2025, though most likely won’t be ready to pitch at the start of the season.