Opinion: Shohei Ohtani is baseball’s MVP

Shohei Ohtani (Joe Glorioso/All-Pro Reels for Washington Times Sports, Wikimedia Commons)

The Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Awards were announced on Thursday. Los Angeles Dodgers multi-positional phenom Shohei Ohtani of Mizusawa, Japan was named the National League MVP and New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge of Linden, California was named the American League MVP. Ohtani and Judge are great baseball players, but if you had to pick one MLB MVP, it is clearly Ohtani, who is an excellent pitcher and hitter.

Ohtani is a generational superstar in every sense of the word. To accomplish what he is doing right now is historically unprecedented. In 2025, as a hitter, he led the Major Leagues in runs scored (146), and total bases (380). Ohtani also led the National League in slugging percentage (.622). Ohtani had 172 hits, 25 doubles, nine triples, 55 home runs, 102 runs batted in, 20 stolen bases, 109 walks, a .282 batting average, and two sacrifice flies.

Then on the mound, Ohtani pitched 47 innings and had a record of one win and one loss for an earned run average of 2.87 after coming back from Tommy John Surgery. During 14 games, he gave up 40 hits, 15 earned runs, three home runs, and nine walks, to go along with 62 strikeouts and a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 1.04. Ohtani’s win came on August 27 in a 5-1 Dodgers win over the Cincinnati Reds. Ohtani threw five innings and only gave up one earned run.

Judge had a productive season too. He led the Majors in batting average (.331), on base percentage (.457), and slugging percentage (.688). Judge also led the American League in runs scored (137), walks (124), and total bases (372). He had 179 hits, 30 doubles, two triples, 53 home runs, 114 runs batted in, 12 stolen bases, and seven sacrifice flies.