2 weeks Ago By USA TODAY Sports
does not let career-altering setbacks deter his production. He simply reallocates his immense talent and continues making history. With his two-way greatness shelved for the 2024 season due to a second elbow reconstruction surgery, Ohtani was a bat-only option in his first season with the .
And with his right arm mending, he simply expanded the notion of what was possible with his legs. Ohtani became the first player in baseball history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season, shattering the ceiling on what a 6-foot-4, 210-pound slugger who can also pitch at a Cy Young-caliber level might do. Ohtani reached this illustrious peak Thursday with a monster game against the , belting two homers and stealing two bases in a 5-for-5 performance that produced seven RBI.
And with that, he leaves behind the five other members of the 40-40 club: Jose Canseco (1988), Barry Bonds (1996), (1998), (2006) and (2023). SHOHEI OHTANI HAS DONE IT 50 HOME RUNS | 50 STOLEN BASES HISTORY — MLB (@MLB) Certainly, the liberalized stolen base rules that limit the number of pickoff throws and provide larger bases from which to depart and arrive play no small part in this phenomenon. In the first season under these rules designed to artificially inject action into an increasingly stationary game, Acuña hit 41 home runs and stole 73 bases, becoming not just the first , but also 40-50 and 40-60.
Rodriguez held the previous record – 46 – for stolen bases in a 40-homer season. Yet Ohtani, as is his wont, found a lane no one had ever traveled. In his first year of a heavily deferred with the Dodgers, Ohtani, the 30-year-old two-time American League MVP, is having arguably the greatest offensive season of his career.
He leads the NL in home runs, slugging (.607), OPS (.978) and adjusted OPS (177), the latter mark just shy of his career-best 184 established in his final season with the down-freeway Angels.
Yet Ohtani has already eclipsed the 44 home runs he hit last season, and the career-high 46 he belted in 2021. And to all that, he has added 51 stolen bases, more than doubling the 20 he swiped last year and nearly doubling his career-best 26 steals in 2021. Indeed, this season has been a referendum on Ohtani’s athleticism.
While comparisons to Babe Ruth were only natural given Ohtani’s ability to both slug and strike out batters, this historic campaign has further cemented his status as a one-of-a-kind athlete, one of the greatest on the globe. As Ohtani puts this season together, he has quietly yet diligently continued rehabilitating his right elbow. He remains on track to pitch in 2025, the world awaiting whether he can match his startling 11.
4 strikeout rate per nine innings, and his 3.01 career ERA after a second elbow surgery. Will 50-50-200 (strikeouts) be in the cards? It seems almost physically impossible.
Yet that’s a term we’ve learned not to associate with a player who continues to redefine what is possible..
