Shohei Ohtani is set to be announced as the runaway NL MVP award winner, giving him four of the highest individual honors in the sport over his career. He’ll have won three in a row and two straight with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ohtani’s first of this projected current three-peat came with the Los Angeles Angels, as did his very first award.
As NBC Sports’ Matthew Pouliot notes, this was a vulnerable year for Ohtani by his standards. But unlike Aaron Judge in the American League, Ohtani didn’t have someone like Cal Raleigh breathing down his neck in the National League this past year.
The New York Mets’ Juan Soto got a shoutout for being great, but he showed up late to the party as his team fell out of playoff contention in the NL.
“This year’s results left him more beatable than last year, when he completed the first 50/50 season ever (54 homers, 59 steals) and drove in 130 runs. This year, he drove in just 47 teammates all season to finish sixth in the NL with 102 RBI, and while he did make a modest contribution on the mound after returning from Tommy John surgery, his 47 innings in the regular season weren’t a huge difference maker. He also didn’t do as much running after offseason shoulder surgery, finishing with 20 steals,” Pouliot wrote.
“Fortunately for Ohtani, there was no Raleigh pushing him in the NL. Kyle Schwarber was awesome in collecting his 56 homers and 132 RBI, but he would have needed to be more than a designated hitter to make up the ground he needed. Soto played like an MVP the final two months, but he needed to catch fire earlier.”
Raleigh helped revive the Seattle Mariners’ fanbase and give them hope heading into the postseason. The team’s seven-game ALCS loss to the Toronto Blue Jays was a temporary setback for a fully emerged contender from the AL West. Seattle’s ceiling is undefined, though they’re not expected to be big spenders in free agency.
Raleigh pushed Judge hard, but the Yankees slugger is now expected to bring home his third AL MVP. Raleigh has yet to win the award himself, but if 2025 was a bellwether for what’s to come, that should change quickly.
As for Ohtani, not much seems capable of slowing him down in the NL. He’s likely going for four in a row next year.
