2024-08-25 02:20:02
Shohei Ohtani never ceases to amaze. In a season where he unfortunately is unable to pitch as he recovers from elbow surgery, he found yet another way to be outstanding – becoming the sixth player in MLB history with at least 40 homers and 40 stolen bases in a season.
And joining an exclusive club wasn’t enough, so he found the most dramatic way to do so – with a walk-off grand slam.
Here’s a look at 11 stats and facts about Ohtani joining the 40-40 club.
• Ohtani joins 2023 Ronald Acuña Jr., 2006 Alfonso Soriano, 1998 Alex Rodriguez, 1996 Barry Bonds and 1988 Jose Canseco in this exclusive club. With full understanding that Ohtani is not the prototypical designated hitter, it is worth noting he’s the first to do this.
• Ohtani accomplished this feat in just his 126th game of the season. That’s by far the fewest games played to reach 40-40 in a season, surpassing Soriano, who got there in 147 games. Here’s how many games it took the rest of the 40-40 club: Canseco (151), Acuña Jr. (152), Rodriguez (153) and Bonds (158).
• As noted above, we know Ohtani isn’t pitching this year, but it’s still worth acknowledging that a player with his pitching prowess is now in this elite echelon of power-speed seasons. To that end, Ohtani has made 86 career starts on the mound, with 608 strikeouts and a 3.01 ERA. The five other members of the 40-40 club combined have one MLB pitching appearance, by Canseco on May 29, 1993, as a position player pitching.
• Ohtani was already one of just nine players in MLB history with multiple 40-HR, 20-SB seasons, along with: Rodriguez, Bonds, Canseco, Acuña Jr., Green, Ken Griffey Jr., Jeff Bagwell and Henry Aaron. With three such seasons, the list gets a lot shorter. Just Rodriguez (four), Ohtani, Bonds and Canseco have at least three 40-20 seasons.
• It’s the 15th 40+ homer season in Dodgers’ franchise history and the first since Cody Bellinger hit 47 in 2019. The most in a season in Dodger blue is 49 by Shawn Green in 2001. Green had 20 stolen bases that year, the prior-most for a Dodger in a season with at least 40 home runs.
• Ohtani is on pace for 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases. No player has ever had that combination in a season. The highest total a player has reached in both home runs and stolen bases in a season is 42, when Rodriguez had 42 home runs and 46 stolen bases in 1998.
• Ohtani leads the NL in home runs. The last player to lead his league in home runs and have more than 40 stolen bases in a season was Tris Speaker in 1912, with 52 stolen bases and 10 home runs, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The only other players since 1900 to do this were 1909 Ty Cobb (78 SB), 1909 Red Murray (49 SB) and 1903 Jimmy Sheckard (67 SB).
• Ohtani is second in MLB in both home runs and stolen bases. The last player to be top-two in the Majors in both home runs and stolen bases was Ty Cobb in 1909. The only other to do so was Honus Wagner in 1908.
• With his 40th stolen base, Ohtani became the fifth player with at least one season with at least 40 stolen bases and a season with 200 pitching strikeouts, joining Kid Gleason, John Ward, Dave Foutz and Guy Hecker. The four other than Ohtani did so before both the mound was moved to its current distance (1893) and the modern SB rule was adopted (1898).
• He doesn’t just hit home runs, he crushes them. Ohtani has 13 home runs of at least 113 mph this season. That’s the third-most in a season under Statcast (2015), behind only 2017 Giancarlo Stanton (18) and 2017 Aaron Judge (15).
• He hits them far, too. Ohtani has seven home runs of at least 450 feet so far this season, the most by any Dodger in a career under Statcast. Five of those have been at Dodger Stadium, which has had just 15 total 450+ foot homers under Statcast, second-fewest of any venue in that span (Petco Park, 12). Ohtani is the only player with multiple of those, and again, he has five.
