Shohei Ohtani’s unanimous AL MVP win makes two-way star a rare company

Angel two-dimensional star Shohei Ohtani was voted the MVP of the American League of 2021 and he won the award unanimously. Ohtani got all 30 votes in first place in the poll, resulting in a total score of 420. The finisher was in second place. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Blue jay 151 points behind Ohtani. (You can view the full voting breakdown by multiply here.)

This is not surprising given the strange nature of Ohtani’s 26-year-old campaign. On the mound, he throws up to 3.18 ERA / 141 ERA + with 156 strikes and 42 unintentional walks in 130 1/3 sets. He also got a quality start in 61% of trips to the mound. As a pitcher – typically Angels’ DH on his non-throwing days but also the extremely rare “hit AL pitcher” – Ohtani slashed .257 / .372 / .592 ( 158 OPS +) with 46 runs home and one MLB-repeat eight triplets.

Ohtani also stole 26 soles and took more soles at an above-average clip. It’s common enough to hear about “do it all” players, but in Ohtani’s case, that statement approaches literally, at least in baseball terms. Add them all, and Ohtani combine WAR 9.1 leads not only AL but all majors this season and has done so by a large margin. Yes, WAR is a bit of a blunt tool, but it’s true in this case that it ranks Ohtani as the best player in the game in 2021.

A full rundown of Ohtani’s historic feats in 2021 is best left to Wikipedia’s acquaintances, but we’ll provide a few illustrations to the larger point of broad-based excellence. his:

• At one point in the 2021 season, Ohtani became the first player since Babe Ruth in 1921 – that is 100 years ago – to have a start on the mound while also leading pro players in running on the field. home run fight, do not allow).
• Ohtani also became the first pitcher in more than 50 years to take the top spot.

Now back to the matter of Ohtani’s consensus. It’s worth it, and it puts him in a rare company in baseball history. Speaking of which, here’s a summary of the previously agreed upon MVP selections since 1931, when the Baseball Writers Association took over the process and awarded prizes to each of the two leagues. That is the natural process that we still have today. For the sacred ledger:

Now, of course, you can add Ohtani. As you can see, he becomes the second Angel ever to be the unanimous MVP pick and he’s only the second unanimous AL MVP since 1997. With Ohtani’s sweep, the greedy Angels Tigers, Giants, and Cardinals are the only franchises to boast multiple unanimous MVPs.

Speaking of the 2021 Angels, they are the worst team ever to make a unanimous MVP. The previous record holders were Nationals and Harper in 2015, with a win rate of 0.512. The 2021 Angels ended with a win rate of 0.475. There is, of course, a steady development in thinking that disproves the notion that MVPs must come from competitive teams (the voting guidelines explicitly state that an MVP does not need to play for a candidate) and That’s definitely happening here. Much of that, though, is down to the fact that Ohtani’s dominance as a hitter and pitcher coupled with massive, world-spanning star power makes such considerations even less important. more relevant in practice.