Shohei Ohtani is worth his contract

When Ohtani signed a 700 million dollar contract in the 2023 offseason, some people, like me thought that even while Ohtani is such a stud, isn’t that a bit too much.

A season after I made that exact statement, I believe Ohtani is worth every penny. It doesn’t matter if he’s a DH, pitcher, or a DH and a pitcher. Ohtani will succeed in whatever baseball-related thing he does.

On Thursday, September 19th, in the game versus the Miami Marlins in Miami, Shohei Ohtani stole his 50th bag and hit his 50th HR of the season. We’ll talk about all the crazy stuff he did and more.

Dodgers IL/Other Updates:

• Tyler Glasnow is out for the rest of the season.
• Gavin Stone is most likely out for the season too.
• Ohtani may pitch in this year’s postseason, especially with the options the Los Angeles Dodgers have right now.
• Landon Knack has probably locked down the Game 4 starter role as Bobby Miller was optioned.

Ohtani is Worth His Contract

So, Ohtani not only created the 50/50 club but passed Shawn Green as the single-season HR leader in Dodgers history. This surprised me a lot, as I never knew that no one hit 50 homers in a season in Dodgers history! In the last decade, only one other person came close to it. That’s Cody Bellinger, who ranks number four on this list. He did this in 2019. Let’s check the rest of the list out.

• 51 2024 Shohei Ohtani
• 49 2001 Shawn Green
• 48 2004 Adrián Beltré
• 47 2019 Cody Bellinger
• 43 2000 Gary Sheffield
• 43 1956 Duke Snider
• 42 2002 Shawn Green
• 42 1954 Gil Hodges
• 42 1953 Duke Snider
• 42 1955 Duke Snider

CrAzY!

So, what is a 50/50 season? A 50/50 season is 50 HRs and 50 steals in one season. A 42/42 season was the “brand”. Ohtani broke that. He continued mashing and got to 50/50. He is even past 50/50, he’s a 51/51 player! Ohtani is setting so many records that are so high that we might have to wait another 155 years for another player like Ohtani! Here’s why I say 155.

Major League Baseball has been around for about 155 years. The Dodgers have been around for 141 years. In just one day, Ohtani has made so much history. No, the list doesn’t just end here. The 50/50 barrier has been broken and the Dodgers home-run record has been broken, but I’m missing two more.

Ohtani tied the famous Rickey Henderson for the amount of games with a home run and stolen base on the season. In the 1986 season, Rickey Henderson stole a base and hit a homer in the same game 13 times. It doesn’t seem like much, but kid you not, that’s pretty hard. If Ohtani can make some magic and have one more game like this, he could create history yet again. This time, with something that hasn’t been broken in 38 years. (Also, an MLB record.)

Coming to the last of the records Ohtani broke. This is just focusing on the game he had against the Marlins. Ohtani is the first player to have a game with 10+ runs batted in, 6+ hits, 5+ extra-base hits, 3+ home runs, and 2+ stolen bases all in the same game. That’s the type of game he had on September 19th, where the Dodgers feasted on the Marlins, winning 20-4.

The second-best person who was active in this game today? Skip Schumaker. Instead of intentionally walking Ohtani in the top of the 7th inning (when Ohtani broke the record), Schumaker just said this.

“F--- that. Too much respect for this guy for that s--- to happen.”

Skip Schumaker

What a day. What a year for Shohei Ohtani.

Other MLB Updates

• The San Francisco Giants are officially eliminated from playoff contention! (Let me let my bias kick in… LET’S GOOOOO.)
• Milwaukee Brewers and Cleveland Guardians both make it into the postseason. Meanwhile, the Oakland Athletics were eliminated from playoff contention.
• The Dodgers make the postseason.
• The Oakland A’s are officially in their final homestand in Oakland.