With a 51-51 season, Shohei Ohtani shows us once again that he is capable of the impossible

This season wasn’t supposed to be about Shohei Ohtani’s stats.

After three years of increasingly dazzling performances on the field from the two-way player, Ohtani’s offseason jump from the Angels to the Dodgers introduced a wealth of intriguing new storylines surrounding the once-in-a-lifetime talent. But with elbow surgery late last season limiting Ohtani to DH duties in 2024, our collective instinct was to put our hopes for more unprecedented performances on hold for a year while he rehabbed for a return to two-way status.

Meanwhile, there was no shortage of compelling subplots to keep an eye on: A $700 million free agent contract with unprecedented deferrals. Ohtani’s fit into a lineup with two other MVPs in Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. How he would handle his DH responsibilities while also recovering from the second elbow surgery of his career. A gambling scandal involving his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, that rocked the baseball world just before Opening Day. The chance to play in October after six straight losing seasons in Anaheim. Working with another Japanese superstar in Yoshinobu Yamamoto. His wife! His dog! And so on.

With so much else going on in Ohtani’s debut season in Dodger blue, his raw statistical output — temporarily limited to that of a hitter (and one who doesn’t play defense) — likely seemed secondary.

At least that’s what we thought.

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Instead, Ohtani has found another way to make history. On Thursday against the Marlins at loanDepot Park, he became the first player ever to collect 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in an MLB season. And then he became the first player to collect 51 of each.

“I’m happy, relieved and have a lot of respect for my colleagues and everyone who played this sport, baseball, before,” Ohtani said through an interpreter after the Dodgers’ 20-4 win over the Marlins.

A playful Mookie Betts told reporters he noticed something different about his teammate on this historic day.

“I don’t even know if it was any kind of relief,” Betts said. “I think he just felt good and sexy and just knew, like, ‘I’m going to do this today.’ He could have hit four homers today.”

Ohtani’s gradual march toward an unfathomable milestone was capped by one of the finest offensive performances of his already legendary major-league tenure: a career-high six hits, with three home runs, two stolen bases and 10 runs batted in (a Dodgers record). Never before had a player accomplished all of those feats in a single major-league game, and Ohtani did it while simultaneously creating a club that didn’t exist before. Little mentioned was the fact that it was also the first three-home run game of his MLB career.

“Honestly, I’m probably the one who’s most surprised,” Ohtani said, according to the Associated Press. “I have no idea where this came from, but I’m glad it went well today.”

It was a very memorable day in the same stadium where Ohtani gave us the unique highlight of the 2023 World Baseball Classic, when he struck out Mike Trout to secure the victory for Team Japan. He clearly enjoys playing in South Florida.

“I have experienced perhaps the most memorable moments of my career here and this stadium has become one of my favourite stadiums,” he said.

Never before has there been a player like Shohei Ohtani.

So yes, the first member of the 50-50 club is the same player who struck out 167 batters in 132 innings last year and is regrouping for a potential return to the mound this postseason. Ohtani’s 50th home run set a new franchise record for the Dodgers in a single season, surpassing Shawn Green’s 49 long balls in 2001 — and that’s practically a footnote.

Ohtani’s latest and greatest achievement was months in the making, but hardly a certainty until recently. With 14 homers and 13 stolen bases through late May, he was well on his way to the best power-speed season of his career, but not necessarily on track to do anything unprecedented. On June 16, Ohtani hit two homers in Kansas City to bring his season total to 19 homers and 15 stolen bases. At the time, 30-30 seemed likely, with 40-40 more likely.

But something else happened in that June 16 game that drastically changed the course of Ohtani’s season: Betts suffered a broken left wrist on a hit by pitch. It was a crushing blow to the Dodgers. But Betts’ two-month absence introduced an unexpected dynamic at the top of the Dodgers’ lineup: Ohtani as leadoff hitter.

Rather than keep Ohtani at number two and replace Betts with someone else, manager Dave Roberts opted to move his newest superstar to the top of the order. Ohtani had some experience in the role, having played 61 games as a leadoff hitter in his six years in Anaheim. It was a logical solution, albeit a seemingly temporary one, but still a significant adjustment for Ohtani to make on the spot after spending the first third of the season atop the lineup among his fellow MVPs.

Of course, he responded brilliantly. Ohtani seamlessly adapted to the new challenges—and opportunities—that come with leading the bat. He retained his slugging ways while beefing up his contributions on the basepaths to better embody his new role. For example, he hit eight home runs in his first 13 games as the Dodgers’ leadoff man, then stole 12 balls in July, the most he’d ever collected in a single month of his career.

August, though, is the month in which Ohtani really hits his stride — so much so that when Betts returned to the lineup, it was an easy decision for the Dodgers to keep Ohtani at leadoff. His 12 homers and 15 steals in August made him just the eighth player ever to have at least 10 homers and 10 stolen bases in a calendar month.

“With Mookie specifically, he was obviously injured and was out for a lot of the season,” Ohtani said Thursday. “I ended up starting first. And when he came back, we decided to make it a priority to make sure we were communicating with each other so we could have a better flow hitting first and second in the lineup. I think I’ll continue to do that with him as we get ready for the postseason.”

Ohtani joined the 40-40 club in emphatic fashion on August 23 against the Rays: After stealing his 40th base of the season in the fourth inning, Ohtani hit a walk-off grand slam for his 40th home run to secure the victory for Los Angeles. The first of the five previous members of the 40-40 club to reach both milestones was Alfonso Soriano in 2006, who stole his 40th base in the Nationals’ 148th game of the season. Ohtani did it in Game No. 129.

This breakneck pace opened the door for the unthinkable: a 50-50 season. As Ohtani had done so many times before in his career, the boundaries of what was previously thought possible on a baseball field were shattered.

And so he went ahead and eventually made the impossible a reality.