For the second straight year, Shohei Ohtani accepted his MVP award at the Annual New York Baseball Writer’s Dinner for BBWAA Awards. This time, Ohtani wasn’t present during the event, and elected to share a pre-recorded acceptance speech in English.
Ohtani humbly thanked the entire Dodgers organization and the fans for their unwavering support throughout the season, but shined a light on the recent wildfires that have devastated various communities and displaced hundreds of thousands of residents in the greater Los Angeles area.
Ohtani, who already donated $500,000 to local firefighters and to individuals living in shelters with animals in need, dedicated his 2024 NL MVP award to the city of Los Angeles, via the Foul Territory podcast.
“Lastly, I wanted to dedicate this award to the entire city of Los Angeles, to all of the first responders, firefighters, and to all of the fire departments for their heroic efforts to combat these fires in Los Angeles. Stay strong and united. We will get through this. Thank you.”
“This year was a very special year in so many ways.”
Shohei Ohtani accepts the 2024 NL MVP Award! pic.twitter.com/OfQnYNubHU
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) January 26, 2025
Roki Sasaki enters Major League Baseball as the no. 1 prospect in the sport and a pitching repertoire that features a wicked 80-grade splitter. His fastball and slider do need some fine tuning, and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com believes that the Dodgers will be able to fix his command on his fastball and increase his durability. Mayo spoke on Sasaki during a guest panel feature with Greg Amsinger on MLB Network.
“The slider could get refined a little bit more. It’s good enough, especially because the splitter is so ungodly and impossible to hit and the fastball has plenty of light… If he can add a little more strength, just because there are some tiny durability concerns. He missed some time last year. The velocity was down just a little bit. We’re splitting hairs with a guy this good.”
If Sasaki is promoted to the active roster by Opening Day and wins Rookie of the Year or places in the top 3 of MVP or Cy Young voting over the next three seasons, the Dodgers will receive a significant draft pick, reports Jack Baer of Yahoo Sports.
Language versatility is key to thriving in your typical MLB clubhouse, and with the Dodgers housing players from three different continents, the game of baseball itself serves as a primary form of communication between players of different national backgrounds.
This rang true for the friendship between Teoscar Hernández and Shohei Ohtani, who have made their own attempts to learn each other’s languages. Hernández appeared on the Dodgers Territory podcast with Alanna Rizzo and Clint Pasillas, where he spoke on his progress in learning Japanese as well as Ohtani’s progress in learning Spanish.
“I think his Spanish was better than my Japanese throughout the year. We would try to teach each other some words in Japanese and some in Spanish, but I think Shohei remembers everything that I taught him in Spanish, but I didn’t remember anything that he taught me in Japanese… It’s great to have that relationship with Shohei.”