We’ll find out next week if Ohtani wins the award, but he’s just the 30th different Dodger to finish in the top three of MVP voting
We found out Monday that Shohei Ohtani will finish in the top three in National League MVP voting, and he’s the favorite to win the award on November 21. But by simply reaching the top three of voting, Ohtani has already entered a select club in Dodgers history.
A Dodger has won the MVP award 14 times, beginning with first baseman Jake Daubert for Brooklyn in 1913. Twelve different Dodgers have won MVP, led by catcher Roy Campanella taking home three awards (1951, 1953, 1955) in a five-year span.
Ohtani is only the 30th Dodger to finish in the top three of MVP voting, which does seem like a large number, but the Dodgers have been in the National League for 135 years and had 1,974 different players appear in a game in franchise history. Being among the 1.5 percent is quite rare.
Those 30 players have combined for 41 seasons with the Dodgers finishing in the top three of MVP voting. Besides Campanella, Sandy Koufax is the only other player to do so three times. Koufax won NL MVP in 1963, then finished second to Willie Mays in 1965 and second to Roberto Clemente in 1966.
In 2023, Mookie Betts finished second and Freddie Freeman third, the ninth time the Dodgers had at least two players in the top three of voting in the same season. Their most prolific such season was in 1941, when Brooklyn had first baseman Dolph Camilli win the award, ahead of centerfielder Pete Reiser in second place and starting pitcher Whit Wyatt in third place.
After shortstop Maury Wills won MVP in 1962 and Koufax in 1963, the Dodgers only won two MVPs in the next 40 years. But they’ve already won two MVPs during this current run of a dozen consecutive postseason appearances, with pitcher Clayton Kershaw taking home the honors in 2014 — the first NL pitcher to win MVP in 46 years — and Cody Bellinger winning the award in 2019.
On November 21, we’ll find out if Ohtani can continue that every-five-years MVP schedule the Dodgers have going.