Shohei Ohtani was named National League Player of the Week for Sept. 23-29, marking the fourth time he’s received the honor this season. It’s the 11th time in Ohtani’s career he’s been named Player of the Week, with the majority of those coming in the American League.
This is also the second consecutive NL Player of the Week recognition Ohtani has earned. Overall, the Los Angeles Dodgers had three different players receive the weekly honor for a combined total of five times this season.
Mookie Betts additionally was named NL Player of the Month for March/April, which Ohtani figures to be a heavy favorite to add to his accolades after a tremendous final stretch of the regular season.
During his latest week of play, Ohtani hit .520/.571/.800 with four doubles, one home run, seven RBI and four stolen bases. The stretch included helping the Dodgers clinch the NL West title behind back-to-back wins against the San Diego Padres.
“He just doesn’t seem human right now,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts recently said. “I really haven’t seen a player as locked in as Shohei is for as long as he’s been, for quite some time. Just huge hits, huge homers.”
The Japan native led the Majors in batting average and on-base percentage; tied for the Major League lead in hits (13), doubles and stolen bases; ranked second in on-base plus slugging (1.371); ranked third in total bases; tied for third in RBI; and tied for fourth in slugging and extra-base hits (5).
The four-time All-Star registered four hits and four RBI on Friday at Colorado, marking his fourth game of the year with at least four hits, and second game with at least four hits and at least four RBI.
Overall, Ohtani was one of six players with at least two such games this season, joining Bobby Witt Jr., Kyle Schwarber, Bryan Reynolds, Ceddanne Rafaela and Willy Adames.
The 2021 and 2023 AL MVP stole his 57th base of the year on Friday at Colorado, passing Ichiro Suzuki (2001) for the single-season record by a Japanese-born player. He finished the year with 59 stolen bases and was successful in his last 36 attempts (since July 23rd), marking the second-longest streak in Dodgers’ franchise history. His streak trails only Davey Lopes, who successfully stole 38 consecutive bases from June 6-August 24, 1975.
The 2018 Jackie Robinson AL Rookie of the Year became the first player since 2001 with at least 400 total bases in a single season when Sammy Sosa (425); Luis Gonzalez (419); Barry Bonds (411); and Todd Helton (402) each accomplished the feat.
Ohtani’s 411 total bases on the year are tied with Bonds (2001) for fifth-most in a single season, trailing Hall of Famer Stan Musial (429 in 1948); Sosa (425 in 2001); Gonzalez (419 in 2001); and Sosa (416 in 1998).
Ohtani closed out his incredible season on a 12-game hitting streak dating back to September 17th, marking the third-longest hitting streak of his career behind a 15-game streak during last season and a career-long 18-game streak in 2022. During the current streak, he is slashing .547/.586/1.057/1.643 with seven homers, 22 RBI and 11 stolen bases.
Ohtani’s hot hitting also saw him make a late push toward catching the Padres’ Luis Arraez for the NL batting title. Doing so would’ve given Ohtani the triple crown, as he led the NL with 54 home runs and 130 RBI. His .310 batting average finished second to Arraez’s .314.
Shohei Ohtani Player of the Week history
Ohtani is among 23 players in MLB history with at least 10 weekly awards in his career.
Ohtani also is the eighth player since 1973 to win it at least three times in both leagues, joining Carlos Beltrán (six NL/four AL); Adrián González (five/three); Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero (seven/three); Manny Machado (four/four); Mark McGwire (five/five); Al Oliver (five/three); and Gary Sheffield (nine/three).
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