Back in the spring, during Shohei Ohtani’s early days with his new club, people around Dodgers camp couldn’t help but dream of what the two-way star’s debut season with the team could look like.
Coming off his second MVP award and a record $700-million signing with the Dodgers in the offseason, Ohtani was already viewed as the best player in baseball.
And after undergoing Tommy John surgery at the end of last year, he entered 2024 solely focused on being a designated hitter.
At the time, the hope was that Ohtani’s offense would be unburdened by his elbow surgery and rehab as a pitcher. That his production could be enhanced by a season of only hitting. That he could somehow elevate his game further, and pursue a whole new set of historic targets that before had been beyond his reach.
“I’m sure he’s going to miss not being able to go out there every fifth or sixth day to pitch,” manager Dave Roberts said in February. “But I just really feel good about the way he is right now, and how he looks.”
Six months later, on Friday night against the Tampa Bay Rays, Ohtani turned even the loftiest of those expectations into reality, becoming just the sixth player in MLB history to have a 40-home run, 40-stolen base season, and the first to eclipse both thresholds before the start of September.
Ohtani entered the 40-40 club in the ninth inning Friday in the most dramatic way possible, hitting a walk-off grand slam in a 7-3 win to complete the first 40-40 season in Dodgers history.
He earned his 40th stolen base in the fourth inning Friday. After leading off the inning with an infield single, Ohtani stole second base without a throw from catcher Rob Brantly.
A 40-40 season has long been one of baseball’s most exclusive statistical feats.
It was only back in 1988 when Jose Canseco of the Oakland Athletics recorded the first 40-40 season in MLB history. Over the next two decades, Barry Bonds (1996), Alex Rodriguez (1998) and Alfonso Soriano (2006) would join him.
Last year, Ronald Acuña Jr. of the Atlanta Braves ended a 17-year drought of 40-40 seasons in emphatic style, swiping 73 bags to capture unanimous National League MVP honors.
Ohtani appears to be on a similar path this year, entering the season’s final stretch as the overwhelming favorite for MVP and on the verge of more unprecedented history. He looks likely to have the first 45-45 season in MLB history. If he heats up over the final month, 50-50 might not be out of the question either.
While Ohtani surpassed 40 home runs in both his 2021 and 2023 MVP seasons with the Angels, the 30-year-old had never stolen more than 26 bases as a big-leaguer before this season, always practicing some level of constraint on the base paths to conserve energy and protect his body for his pitching.
With Ohtani not expected back on the mound until 2025, though, the thought of a 40-40 campaign quickly came into focus this year.
“I do think 40-40 is something that was on his radar from spring training,” Roberts said a couple weeks ago, when Ohtani became just the third Dodgers player to ever have a 30-30 season. “As far as the foot speed, what he can do offensively, he’s one of one.”
And, now, one of six to make history with a 40-homer, 40-steal season.