Shohei Ohtani Is Chasing the Greatest Year Baseball Has Ever Seen

It isn't just the two-way stardom that makes Shohei Ohtani arguably the greatest to ever do it in baseball. There's also his stubborn insistence on outdoing himself.

With the Los Angeles Angels, he was Rookie of the Year in 2018 before he was MVP in 2021. That kicked off a three-year run in which he was a top-five hitter and a top-five pitcher.

His Angels era has proven to be a warm-up for his Los Angeles Dodgers era, and you can pick your poison as to his most impressive feat. Consecutive MVPs. The 50-50 season. And of course, the back-to-back World Series rings.

But what if we haven't seen Ohtani's masterpiece yet? What if he can outdo himself yet again in 2026? What if he dominates from March all the way through October?

What if he has the greatest year that any baseball player has ever had?

Act 1: The World Baseball Classic

At Stake: A 2nd WBC Championship and a 2nd WBC MVP Award

Though Ohtani got some spring training reps with the Dodgers beforehand, his year functionally began in Tokyo on Friday with Team Japan's World Baseball Classic opener against Chinese Taipei. And he did no less than hit a grand slam in the second inning, and a RBI single later in the same inning.

Especially knowing that Japan won the 2023 WBC largely on the strength of Ohtani's right arm, it's a bummer he won't be pitching in this year's iteration. If he leads Japan to its fourth WBC title, it'll have to be with his bat.

As tasks go, however, this is not his most difficult. The last time Ohtani faced the world's best, he brought his best. He finished the 2023 World Baseball Classic with a 1.345 OPS and eight RBI as a hitter. That was with just one home run, a total he had equaled by the second inning on Friday.

As Japan is one of the top contenders for the crown, the question may not be simply whether Ohtani can lead his country to yet another WBC championship. A better question is how likely he is to join Daisuke Matsuzaka as the only two-time MVPs in the tournament's 20-year history.

Act 2: The Cy Young Award

At Stake: His Highest Finish Ever in the Cy Young Award Voting

As a pitcher, Ohtani has only factored into the Cy Young Award voting once. That was when he finished fourth in the AL race in 2022, which is also the only year he's ever pitched enough innings to qualify for the ERA title.

But go ahead and take it away, Will Smith.

"There's no ceiling with him," the Dodgers catcher told Alden Gonzalez of ESPN. "He can go out there and win a Cy Young this year. I have no doubt about that."

This is bold, but not because Ohtani lacks Cy Young-caliber talent. He posted a 2.87 ERA last season, and his expected ERA put him in elite company (min. 14 GS):

1. Zack Wheeler: 2.48
2. Shohei Ohtani: 2.53
3. Paul Skenes: 2.65
4. Tarik Skubal: 2.71
5. Yoshinobu Yamamoto: 2.72

Ohtani's Cy Young fortunes will come down to his workload, which will naturally be limited by way of the Dodgers' six-man rotation.

That doesn't doom his chances, however. Driven largely by necessity, voting for the Cy Young Award has shifted toward smaller innings counts in recent years. Four of the last 10 winners didn't go past 180 innings, and Corbin Burnes even won with 167.0 in 2021.

Act 3: The MVP Award

At Stake: His 5th MVP Overall, and His 4th in a Row

No matter his fate in the Cy Young Award voting, Ohtani will begin 2026 as the runaway favorite for the NL MVP award. DraftKings has him as a -125 favorite over Juan Soto at +750.

Even Soto knows the deal. Though he's come into a peak as a triple-threat for a .400 OBP, 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases, he knows it's on him to "find a way" to deny Ohtani yet another MVP award.

Even if Ohtani were merely a position player, beating him for the MVP award would still be a seemingly insurmountable challenge. He may not be baseball's best hitter—Aaron Judge gets that distinction all to himself—but he is the sport's most well-rounded offensive threat. In two years as a Dodger, he's slashed .296/.391/.634 with 109 home runs and 79 stolen bases.

If Ohtani, who'll turn 32 on July 5, does win another MVP, he'll become only the second player to win five MVPs overall and the second player to ever win four in a row.

In both cases, he'll claim history heretofore known only to Barry Bonds.

Act 4: The World Series

At Stake: His 3rd Straight Championship and 1st World Series MVP

With their third straight World Series title in view, Ohtani and the Dodgers are trying to go where only two MLB franchises have ever gone before:

• 1936-1939 New York Yankees
• 1949-1953 New York Yankees
• 1972-1974 Oakland Athletics
• 1998-2000 New York Yankees

As with Ohtani and the NL MVP, the Dodgers are the clear favorite to win the World Series again this year. DraftKings has them at +230, with the Yankees barely within earshot at +1000.

Whether you want to nitpick their collective age, Blake Snell's bum shoulder, or Roki Sasaki's ongoing struggles, the Dodgers aren't perfect. But they did sign the best hitter (Kyle Tucker) and closer (Edwin Díaz) on the free-agent market, and they still have MVP winners Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman in addition to Ohtani.

Further, the Dodgers possibly haven't seen Ohtani's best in October.

His best has shown up in flashes, including last year in two of the greatest playoff games ever: NLCS Game 4 and World Series Game 3. Yet he has also gone cold at inopportune times, such as the entirety of the 2024 World Series (no thanks to a dislocated shoulder) and the last four games of the 2025 World Series.

With the law of averages working against them in their quest for a three-peat, the Dodgers getting it done may well come down to Ohtani carrying them all the way, not merely taking occasional turns doing so. In essence, they might need him to finally achieve Reggie Jackson status in October.

That alone would make his 2026 a year for the ages. And if it comes on the heels of everything else he stands to accomplish, we will have all borne witness to the greatest year that any baseball player has ever had.

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.