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Given everything Shohei Ohtani has accomplished since his arrival in MLB — two World Series rings, four MVP trophies, season after season that would've been completely unprecedented in a world without him — reaching 300 career home runs seems almost quaint.
That's not to say it isn't meaningful, though.
The Los Angeles Dodgers' superstar clubbed the 300th long ball of his MLB career on Tuesday while leading off against Rockies starter Michael Lorenzen in the bottom of the first inning.
Ohtani is the 170th MLB player to join the 300-homer club, and he does so not long after his teammate Mookie Betts. You can probably guess how many other players in that group also have 750 career strikeouts on the mound.
Ohtani got to 300 homers in his ninth MLB season, though with only 47 of them in the first three. He averaged 46.6 homers per season from 2021 to 2025, a span of time that saw him post the first 50-homer, 50-stolen-base season in MLB history in 2024. He also won four MVP awards in that span, a career total surpassed only by Barry Bonds.
This season is shaping up to be another all-timer, with Ohtani the overwhelming favorite to win NL MVP honors for a third straight year and a dark-horse candidate to win his first Cy Young Award.
The slow start to Ohtani's MLB career feels very long ago. He has turned into a singular superstar in MLB, with an international reach that no other player can match and a résumé that would've been considered comical if presented as a to-do list in 2018.
Having turned 32 on Sunday, Ohtani has shown few signs of slowing down. His $700 million contract, a windfall that once shocked baseball, has become perhaps the most valuable piece of paper in sports, with the Dodgers bringing in and using enough revenue that they're getting name-checked in MLB's public materials calling for a salary cap. Ohtani is also a national hero in Japan, where his level of celebrity surpasses anything seen in the U.S.
All of that is to reiterate that we're watching one of the most impactful careers in MLB history. It will be years before we fully understand the effects of Shohei Ohtani, but for now, he's still got plenty of homers to go.
Continue reading...
That's not to say it isn't meaningful, though.
The Los Angeles Dodgers' superstar clubbed the 300th long ball of his MLB career on Tuesday while leading off against Rockies starter Michael Lorenzen in the bottom of the first inning.
Ohtani is the 170th MLB player to join the 300-homer club, and he does so not long after his teammate Mookie Betts. You can probably guess how many other players in that group also have 750 career strikeouts on the mound.
Ohtani got to 300 homers in his ninth MLB season, though with only 47 of them in the first three. He averaged 46.6 homers per season from 2021 to 2025, a span of time that saw him post the first 50-homer, 50-stolen-base season in MLB history in 2024. He also won four MVP awards in that span, a career total surpassed only by Barry Bonds.
This season is shaping up to be another all-timer, with Ohtani the overwhelming favorite to win NL MVP honors for a third straight year and a dark-horse candidate to win his first Cy Young Award.
Shohei Ohtani's career goes well beyond 300 homers
The slow start to Ohtani's MLB career feels very long ago. He has turned into a singular superstar in MLB, with an international reach that no other player can match and a résumé that would've been considered comical if presented as a to-do list in 2018.
Having turned 32 on Sunday, Ohtani has shown few signs of slowing down. His $700 million contract, a windfall that once shocked baseball, has become perhaps the most valuable piece of paper in sports, with the Dodgers bringing in and using enough revenue that they're getting name-checked in MLB's public materials calling for a salary cap. Ohtani is also a national hero in Japan, where his level of celebrity surpasses anything seen in the U.S.
All of that is to reiterate that we're watching one of the most impactful careers in MLB history. It will be years before we fully understand the effects of Shohei Ohtani, but for now, he's still got plenty of homers to go.
Continue reading...
