Shohei Ohtani looks different this season. Not in his physical appearance or performance on the field, but in his demeanor.
Ohtani plays with a mix of joy and passion that has shaped who he is as a ballplayer. He has the same love for the sport as a middle schooler who just smashed their first home run over a 200-foot fence.
From the lockroom camaraderie and dugout antics to the jaw-dropping highlights and everything in between, Ohtani has always cherished the game.
Not that any of that has gone away, but it feels like now he is laser-focused and in total control.
His confidence is at an all-time high. Ohtani now knows he’s the best player in the world. He has always felt it, but now he knows it, and so does everyone else. While he has always been the most talented player to grace the field, the difference is that he has finally checked the boxes.
“He is the best player that has ever walked this earth,” said Dodgers catcher Will Smith. “It is fun to see him each and every day going out there and competing. He’s giving us 6 scoreless innings, while getting on base a bunch, and doing it all the time. It is really cool.”
The allure of Ohtani is not just that he is a superstar at the plate or on the mound; it is that he is arguably the best in the league at both.
While he did become the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in 2024, half of his game was still missing. He did not take the mound for his new team until late into the 2025 season.
In 2026, he is the best pitcher in the world, proving that despite injuries, he is still the two-way unicorn that originally entered him into this conversation.
Check.
Early on in his career, Ohtani was racking up stats, making All-Star teams, and winning MVPs, but he was doing so on a subpar team. The home runs and shutout innings were not equating to championship hardware.
To be considered the greatest, wins must follow. Since joining the Dodgers, Ohtani is 2 for 2 in World Series appearances and wins. Before joining the roster, he had never even participated in the MLB postseason.
Check. Check.
Team success is important, but in Ohtani’s quest, so are individual achievements. Over the past 3 years, Ohtani has won 3 straight league MVPs. The only other player to accomplish this feat is Barry Bonds.
Check. Check. Check.
Ohtani is well on his way to winning a fourth consecutive MVP and fifth overall. If he keeps it up, he could pass Bonds for the most ever at 7.
Winning the Cy Young this season would just be icing on the cake. A bonus box checked, if you will.
Checkmate.
“His mindset is ready to go get a Cy Young and ready to go get whatever he wants in baseball. This is starting to get boring for Shohei Ohtani. He is tired of hitting, so now he is going for the Cy Young, and then he is going to go for 40 or 50 saves, and do everything that nobody has ever done in baseball,” said Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martinez in a somewhat joking but also serious manner.
He currently has a 0.74 ERA and would become just the third qualified innings pitcher ever and the first since 1914 to finish the season with an ERA under 1.00.
What he is doing as a pitcher feels impossible, and while he struggled at the plate for a small stretch, his batting average is back up over .300 with double-digit home runs.
We might be in the middle of Ohtani’s best individual season, and perfection seems to be the goal at this point. He wants to leave no doubt that he is the best ever.
“I don’t like using hyperbole, but I really think we might be in the middle of one of, if not the greatest season in the history of baseball, and I say that because most of the all-time great seasons have asterisks slash question marks and the other few were before integration was even a part of the game,” said former MVP Joey Votto.
A different type of player is taking the field this year. Almost as if a player that needed no extra boost or motivation has leveled up just because he can. Ohtani shows a different type of emotion on the mound, and it is starting to carry over into his entire game now that he is back on the bump full-time.
“I really think we are talking about Tiger Woods in our lifetime, Michael Jordan in our lifetime. I think we are talking about one of the great athletes of the 21st century,” Votto continued.
In a start against the Rockies, Ohtani was extremely upset with himself when he gave up a single run, so he proceeded to strike out the next batter on 3 consecutive pitches. Most pitchers would be thrilled with giving up only 1 run in 6 innings, but Ohtani is 1 of 1, and the spectacular outing raised his ERA by 0.09 points.
“He is going to be the greatest of all time, and it is not going to be a discussion when his career is all said and done. We can talk about guys that were the greatest hitters and guys that were the greatest pitchers, but we are talking about the greatest of all time because he does both,” said Phillies legend Jimmy Rollins. “He can beat you with his legs, his bat, and once again, when he is on the bump, he can beat you with his arm.”
The flare and fire this season out of Ohtani have been turned up a notch, and it is something special to see.
While he is still the same player who flashes a smile on the basepaths, the stare-down look he is giving opposing hitters is striking fear as Ohtani bleeds with more confidence by the start.
Benjamin Verbrugge is a reporter for News4usonline who studied journalism at CSU Dominguez Hills. “Sports have brought me much joy throughout my life, and I want to give a little back to something that has meant so much to me.” Email Benjamin at benverbrugge8@gmail.com.
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