MLB Playoffs 2024: After 6 Years Without a Postseason Appearance, It’s Finally Sho’ Time for Shohei Ohtani

For six years, Shohei Ohtani stood on the outside watching the Major League Baseball postseason. Much, if not all, was due to the Los Angeles Angels’ incompetence as an organization. In recent years, when Ohtani was clearly the best player in the sport, he was nowhere to be found during baseball’s most watched time of year.

But for the first time in Ohtani’s career, the two-time league MVP will play in the postseason when the Dodgers take on the San Diego Padres in the NLDS, starting Saturday night at Dodger Stadium. This is huge – and not just for him.

Every sport should have its best players competing in the playoffs. The NBA playoffs without LeBron James, the NFL playoffs without Patrick Mahomes or the NHL playoffs without Connor McDavid would feel incomplete. Unfortunately, baseball hasn’t been able to see its biggest superstar on its biggest stage yet.

To understand the importance of Ohtani’s presence in the postseason, you have to go back to a time before he was the best in the game. Years prior to Ohtani’s rise, his old teammate Mike Trout held that crown. And as Ohtani would soon discover, despite having some of the best offensive seasons in recent memory, Trout reached the postseason only once during the height of his powers. Even after he and Ohtani teamed up in Anaheim, they never finished higher than third place in the AL West despite being one of the most talented duos the sport has ever seen.

But when Ohtani signed with the Dodgers last offseason, reaching the postseason became a foregone conclusion. Now the dream of seeing the game’s best player in high-pressure, high-leverage situations is a reality, and it’s exactly what every baseball fan wants to see.

The 2024 regular season was a great preview of the postseason for Ohtani, who exceeded even the highest expectations in his first year in Dodger Blue. He had the best offensive season of his career, nearly won the Triple Crown and became a founding member of the 50/50 club. He is the driving force in a talented LA lineup, having taken over the team when Mookie Betts broke his hand earlier this season.

There are a handful of players who have the ability to rise to the occasion when big moments arise, and Ohtani has shown time and time again that he is one of those players. And there’s no better place than the MLB postseason to put that on full display.

When Ohtani closed for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic last year, we saw it. When he had a 50-50 home run, he performed almost as if he knew the eyes of the world were on him, adding an extra home run for good measure. Even the mystique that he might return from a torn UCL to pitch in the postseason, even though that might not happen, the fact that there’s a non-zero chance just adds more intrigue.

In Ohtani’s first taste of the postseason, any casting of his legacy being tarnished or in jeopardy without a deep Dodgers run would be hyperbolic in the extreme. But if he performs well, it would add to an already long resume and the image of who he has become as a player.

Historically, players who do or don’t perform in the postseason are viewed in a different light, regardless of the rest of their performance. Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, Chipper Jones and Albert Pujols would all be Hall of Famers without ever sniffing the postseason, but the fact that they were great in October only adds to their legends.

Conversely, Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher of his generation, but for much of his long and storied career, his lack of playoff success has been part of his story.

For now, Ohtani has a clean slate. The chapter on his legacy after the season is unwritten. This month gives him his first chance on his journey to become one of baseball’s immortals.

Now the world waits.