A Historical Contract for a Historical Player

On December 9, 2023, the sports world, specifically baseball, came to a stop. Word had broken, Shohei Ohtani, the most unique player in modern baseball, had signed a contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers for ten years, a $700 million contract. It was the largest professional sports contract of the time. The LA Dodgers were already a notably talented team, but this signing felt almost unreal. The dollar sign of the contract was staggering, and headlines across all forms of media were made, but with this massive amount of money came something with maybe even more weight: expectation. ¹

There was a form of setback, in that Ohtani would not be able to give his all, he had undergone Tommy John surgery on his pitching elbow in September 2023. He would not be able to throw a single competitive pitch the entire season. Ohtani, the player who had spent his career so far as the game’s only true two-way superstar, a pitcher-hitter combo not seen since Babe Ruth, would have to be limited to being a designated-hitter for his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Critics were quick to write about whether or not a DH only player would be truly worth $700 million. Questions of could he possibly handle the full weight of his contract with only half of his game being operational. The questions appeared real, The overall answer, would turn out to come with an exclamation point and shut all the critics up. ²

Road to Stardom

For you to really understand what Ohtani accomplished in the 2024 season, it helps to see where he came from. Ohtani was born on July 5, 1994, Ōshū, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, Ohtani grew up in a household formed around baseball. His father, Toru, played semi-professional baseball and kept well-written notebooks on the game, scouting reports, pitching mechanics, and situational hitting. These notebooks were reportedly studied by young Shohei Ohtani with the same seriousness other kids would have for manga. His mother, Kayoko, was a former competitive badminton player. Athletic discipline was the normal in their household language. ³ 

By the time Ohtani reached Hanamaki Higashi High School, his talent was already skilled above average. He hit and pitched at a level that left coaches and scouts searching for comparisons they were not able to make. After highschool, he joined the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of the Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB) instead of going to MLB, like most people expected. This was a calculated move, The Fighters offered him an unusual arrangement, they would develop him as both a pitcher and a hitter simultaneously, not forcing him to choose between them. Under manager Hideki Kuriyama, Ohtani became a real two-way star in the NPB, posting eye-catching numbers on the mound and batting cleanup, a combination that had no modern comparison at the professional level. ⁴

In 2018, Ohtani arrived in the United States, signing with the Los Angeles Angels, and immediately made believers out of skeptics. Ohtani spent six seasons in Anaheim, he put together a historic two-way campaign, won a 2021 MVP award, and became the most notable athlete in all of baseball. ⁵ Yet for all his accolades, he had not been able to win, as a team that is,  the Angels were an average team, and Ohtani had never advanced past the first round of playoffs, in fact, he had hardly even made it to them. The World Series was the only true prize left for someone like Shohei Ohtani.

Spring Training and the Weight of the World

When Ohtani arrived at Dodger Stadium’s spring training facility in Glendale, Arizona, in February 2024, his number, 17, the same as in Japan. He was recovering from surgery, lightly throwing on flat ground and in a bullpen, but zero competitive pitches were soon to happen. For the Dodgers, this was fine, they had a good pitching rotation, what they needed was Ohtani in the lineup, every day, producing at the plate. ⁶

The early weeks of the 2024 season were a reminder that even the best hitters take time to find their tempo in April. Ohtani was good, in fact great, he was always a great player, but the $700 million contract floating over every game he played. There were off weeks in late spring where his home run pace slowed down behind the projections. On sports radio and media alike, predictable voices asked predictable questions, but anyone watching Ohtanu closely noticed something stats were to slow to capture, Ohtani’s plate discipline was extraordinary, his bat speed was elite despite surgery, and he was running, a lot. ⁷

The 50/50 Chase

By midsummer, the conversation around Ohtani had shifted entirely. Ohtani was doing more than just producing, he was showing glimpses of something that had never been done in baseball before. He was currently among the league leaders in home runs and stolen bases. Those two categories have long been considered the domain of different types of players, sluggers and speedsters. A player who could truly compete at above the average major league level in both at the same time was a scarce phenomenon. ⁸

As August turned to September, the chase for 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases became what most media and people spoke about that season. Every at-bat Ohtani took was televised as if it was the playoffs, even Japanese media covered this race to 50/50. Network led with Ohtani’s stat line before anything else, the number 50/50 entered the vocabulary and households of casual sports fans who would have never watched an inning of baseball prior. ⁹

Next came September 19, 2024, the Dodgers traveled to Miami to play the Marlins, a team with a losing and no chance at playoffs. Ohtani entered the game sitting at 48 home runs and 47 stolen bases, with a shot at making baseball history. What happened next was the kind of performance that gets written about the same this article is being written, with a sense that words are almost unable to adequately describe it. ¹⁰

Ohtani hit three home runs and stole two bases in a single game, making history, in one extraordinary afternoon. Ohtani finished the game at 51 homeruns and 51 stolen bases, the stadium exploded, his teammates ran out of the dugout, and Ohtani’s expression caught on camera; quiet satisfaction, the look of a man who just completed a task he had been working for a long time. Videos spread across media within hours and was shared by fans in Tokyo, São Paulo, and London, it was a global sports moment.¹¹

54 HRs / 59 SBs: A Season for the Ages

Ohtani did not stop at 51/51, he finished the 2024 regular season with 54 homeruns (HRs) and 59 stolen bases (SBs), these numbers seemed as if they were from a video game. For context, a 50/50 season had not come close in modern times, and Ohtani even exceeded it by 4 homeruns and 4 stolen bases. The Dodgers, propelled by Ohtani and pitching staff built around Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Freddie Freeman’s consistent performance, and postseason depth, won them the NL West division title. The Dodgers entered the postseason as the favorites to represent the National League in the World Series and potentially win it all. For Ohtani, his season performance answered all questions about his contract, he had been the best position player in baseball that season, by a large margin, while having one arm basically out of service. ¹²

October: When it Matters most

There is a certain pressure that comes with the baseball postseason, that is difficult for many non-baseball fans to understand. The regular season is a marathon, 162 games across six months, it can be humbling to even the best of players. The playoffs are like a knife fight, five game series, seven game series, one slip-up in fielding, a cold outing at the plate, and everything could be over. Ohtani had not experienced this pressure before with the LA Angels, the postseason had been in the real one blank space on his extraordinary resume. ¹³

The Dodgers played through the postseason with a purpose, Ohtani contributed throughout, clutch at-bats, and walk, he played with all this pressure while not becoming overwhelmed by it. He was not perfect, no player in October is, but when the Los Angeles Dodgers faced the New York Yankees in the World Series, Shohei was ready for the biggest stage the sport could offer. ¹⁴

The Yankees were not a team mess around with, they had players like Aaron Judge, one of, if not the most feared hitters in the game. The had a bullpen and a history that goes from Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio. This team was built and capable to stop Ohtani and the Dodgers from a moment like winning a World Series. The Dodgers would end up winning the World Series in game five of the potential seven games series, when the last out was recorded, Ohtani dropped to his knees on the field. He had wanted a World Series ring above everything else his entire career. He had it now. ¹⁵

Unanimous: The MVP and Legacy

The 2024 National League was not up for debate, it was more of a coronation. Every voter agreed, his performance was undoubtable, Shohei Ohtani was the Most Valuable Player in the National League. Unanimous, a kind of vote that only happens when a performance is for lack of a better word, perfect, so undeniable, that reasonable people would concede any argument against it. In the weeks following the World. Series championship, sports analysts and historians began placing Ohtani’s 2024 season on the long list of great individual seasons of sports performances. The comparisons were instructive; Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game, Bo Jackson’s All-Star game home run off of Nolan Ryan, Wayne Gretzky’s single season scoring records, and Tiger Woods at the peak of his dominance. These comparison of performances do not just win games, they change what people and fans believe what is achievable in sports. Ohtani’s 2024 season is an example of this that belongs on that list. ¹⁶

What also had made his season rememberable was its cultural depth. Shohei Ohtani was always involved in a unique space in the sports world, beloved in Japan with an intensity that could be seen as religious, while at the same time being recognized as one of the two or three most famous athletes in North America. Earlier in 2024, Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, faced a gambling scandal that had created enormous noise among the media in the United States and Japan alike. Ohtani handled the situation with a character of quiet dignity and would let his performance in the season speak. And did it speak. ¹⁷

What this Means

The most significant things about Ohtani’s historic 2024 season, although it may be a little quieter than the homeruns and the stolen bases recorded. It is the fact that he did this all with only one functional arm, under the largest contract at the time, and in a city that had now won a World Series since 1988, in a country that was not his own, and in a sport that does not put up with “myth-making”. ¹⁸

He did all of this anyways; the 54 home runs, the 54 stolen bases, the unanimous MVP award, and his first World Series ring. Then, Ohtani kneeling in the grass in October, surrounded by confetti and teammates, and the sound of 56,000 people. Ohtani set an image that will define this era of baseball history; a man who wanted one thing above everything else, and went out and got it. ¹⁹

Shohei Ohtani did not just prove he was worth his $700 million contract in 2024, he rewrote what a single person could accomplish in a single baseball season. He made believers out of critiques and skeptics, champions out of Dodgers, and a statement out of a summer. The sport Ohtani has loved his whole life became bigger because of what he has accomplished. Baseball has always rewarded those who are all-stars among the elite, in 2024, it was given something the game had never seen before in any era and perhaps may not ever see again. ²⁰

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bibliographies

1. Gonzalez, Alden. “Shohei Ohtani Joining Dodgers on 10-Year, $700M Contract.” ESPN, December 9, 2023. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39076745/shohei-ohtani-join-dodgers-10-year-700m-deal.]

2. Toribio, Juan. “Ohtani Caps Remarkable Season with First World Series Ring.” MLB.com, October 31, 2024. https://www.mlb.com/news/shohei-ohtani-wins-first-career-world-series.]

3. Gonzalez, Alden. “Shohei Ohtani First 50/50 Player in Major League History.” ESPN, September 19, 2024. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/41331747/dodgers-ohtani-first-50-50-player-major-league-history.]

4.  “Raising a Legend: Ohtani Shōhei and His Father’s Baseball Notebook.” Nippon.com, March 4, 2022. https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/g01202/.]

5. “Shohei Ohtani Minor, International, and Independent Leagues Statistics & History.” Baseball-Reference.com. Accessed March 8, 2026. https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=otani-000sho.]

6.  Kuhn, Anthony. “Shohei Ohtani’s Former Baseball Coach and Teammates in Japan Recall a Star.” NPR, July 8, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2023/07/08/1185014712/shohei-ohtani-los-angeles-angels-baseball-japan.]

7. Lindbergh, Ben, and Michael Baumann. “Inside Shohei Ohtani’s Superhero Origin Story.” The Ringer, July 12, 2021. https://www.theringer.com/2021/07/12/mlb/shohei-ohtani-first-two-way-season-nippon-ham-fighters.]