It was a bumpy landing, but Shohei Ohtani made his mark in 2024 with a season that will be remembered as one of the greatest in the history of the sport. Think about the pressure on the Japanese superstar when he put pen to paper on a $700 million contract. Think about how he spent so much of his off-field time rehabbing a surgically repaired right elbow.
Think about the personal strife he went through when it was revealed that his best friend had stolen millions of dollars from him. Ohtani could have been crushed by 2024. He could have failed to meet the biggest expectations in baseball, and he would've had plenty of excuses for it.
Instead, he put together a campaign that belongs in Japanese folklore as much as it does in the annals of baseball history. It all revolves around MLB's first 50-home-run, 50-stolen-base season. It didn't feel possible until Ohtani did it.
Before the 2024 season, the closest any player had come was Alex Rodriguez hitting 42 homers and swiping 46 bags in 1998. Ohtani ended up hitting 54 homers and stealing 59 bases, and he crossed the 50-50 threshold in the grandest possible fashion. No player has come to define the word "unprecedented" as much as Ohtani, and he distilled it into one game on Sept.
19, when he posted three homers, two stolen bases, five extra-base hits, six hits and 10 RBI. No player had posted all those totals in any number of games across an entire career, and Ohtani did it all in one day at Marlins Park. Since RBI became officia.
