The 2024 ESPYS were held Thursday night at The Dolby Theatre, and Shohei Ohtani was among the athletes who took home some hardware.
The Los Angeles Dodgers superstar won the Best MLB Player Award for the fourth consecutive year, besting the Atlanta Braves’ Ronald Acuña Jr., Gerrit Cole of the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers’ Corey Seager.
Ohtani was also a runner-up to the Best Athlete, Men’s Sports honor that went to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Mahomes and Ohtani were both in the running to join LeBron James, Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods as the only athletes to win “Best Athlete, Men’s Sports” multiple times.
Although the ESPYS took place this year, Ohtani’s Best MLB Player Award was in recognition of the 2023 season.
Ohtani’s past year included becoming MLB’s first player to ever win two MVP Awards in unanimous fashion after a historic season with the Los Angeles Angels.
At the plate, Ohtani hit .304/.412/.654 with 26 doubles, eight RBI, an American League-best 44 home runs and 95 RBI in 135 games.
The 30-year-old also went 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA, 4.00 FIP, 1.06 WHIP and 11.4 strikeouts per nine on the mound before sustaining a UCL injury that required surgery.
Ohtani went on to sign a record-breaking $700 million contract with the Dodgers, whose first season in L.A. has seen him earn another All-Star Game selection and break multiple franchise records.
Shohei Ohtani skipping Home Run Derby
Ohtani leads the National League with 28 homers this season, but he will not be participating in the 2024 Home Run Derby at Globe Life Field.
“The reason he came to the Dodgers was to win a championship,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And it’s not solely his responsibility to carry Major League Baseball. And he is a guy that is very in tune with his responsibility and the fact that he started an All-Star Game, participated in the Home Run Derby before for the fans.
“But he is going through rehab, and his job, he signed up to play for the Dodgers, and to take care of himself the best way he can.
“I think in any other normal situation where he wasn’t rehabbing, I think he would love to participate, but then you layer on something that is so unique to anyone, the volume of swings, the intensity of it, it would just be a real disappointment for not only Shohei, the Dodgers, and also the fans, if something were to happen during something like that, which is an exhibition, essentially.
“So I know that has weighed heavy on him, but I do think that the rehab process is something that kind of ultimately makes him feel better about bowing out. But him alone, playing, he’s done a lot for the game of baseball, obviously.”
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