by Cary Osborne
Two elevators at Dodger Stadium open up on the bottom floor and reveal a trophy alley. The right side has a line of images and silver plaques representing each Dodger Most Valuable Player award winner beginning with the first — Jake Daubert in 1913 — to the latest.
Make room for the latest.
Shohei Ohtani is the unanimous 2024 National League MVP — the 15th time a Dodger has won the NL MVP award and the first since Cody Bellinger in 2019.
Ohtani is the first player in Major League history to win back-to-back MVP awards in different leagues. Ohtani, who also won American League MVP awards in 2021 and 2023, is the first player since Miguel Cabrera (2012-13) to win the award in back-to-back seasons. Ohtani also becomes only the second player in Major League Baseball history to win the award in both leagues, joining Frank Robinson, who won the MVP in the National League in 1961 as a member of the Cincinnati Reds and in 1966 as a member of the Baltimore Orioles.
Ohtani, in his first season as a Dodger, had one of the most historic seasons by an individual player in franchise history. He joins Roy Campanella (1955), Sandy Koufax (1963) and Kirk Gibson (1988) as the only four Dodgers to win a league MVP award and a World Series championship in the same season.
He is the only 50/50 player — ending the season with 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases — in Major League history.
Ohtani is the first designated hitter to win a National League MVP.
The Japan native finished his first season with the Dodgers, slashing .310/.390/.646/1.036 with a National League-leading 54 home runs, 130 RBI, 134 runs and 411 total bases. It’s the ninth season in Major League history where a player has hit at least 50 home runs, driven in 100 runs, scored 100 runs, tallied 400 total bases and had an OPS north of 1.000. The last time was 2001 when Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Luis Gonzalez all did it in the same season.
Ohtani became the first Major Leaguer to collect at least 400 total bases since 2001.
He led the NL in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS and OPS+ (190).
He broke the Los Angeles Dodgers’ record for runs scored in a season and finished among the Major League leaders in extra-base hits (99, first), runs (first), total bases (first), homers (second), RBI (second), stolen bases (second), slugging percentage (second), OPS (second), hits (197, fourth), batting average (fifth) and OBP (fifth).
He led the NL in bWAR (9.2) and fWAR (9.1).
Ohtani is the third player in history to finish a season in the MLB top two in home runs and stolen bases, joining Hall of Famers Honus Wagner (1908) and Ty Cobb (1909).
Additionally, he won his third Louisville Silver Slugger, his second straight Hank Aaron Award and his fourth straight Edgar Martinez Outstanding Designated Hitter Award and finished his historic campaign with his fifth career Player of the Month honor in September. He finished the final month of the campaign hitting .393 (42-for-107) with 10 homers, 32 RBI, eight doubles, a triple, 12 walks, 27 runs scored, 16 stolen bases, a .766 slugging percentage and a .458 on-base percentage in 26 games, which included his record-setting night on September 19 at Miami where he went 6-for-6, clubbing three homers, stealing two bases and driving in 10 runs to become the first player in Major League Baseball history with 50-plus homers and 50-plus steals in the same season.
Shohei Ohtani completes his historic 2024 season with NL MVP was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.