Prior to this season, Shohei Ohtani was as close as Major League Baseball had ever gotten to a default MVP favorite.'
A top-flight hitter and pitcher who was in the lineup every day and on the hill every fifth day, Ohtani was the first player to check both of those boxes at an elite level since Babe Ruth. Short of an injury, a rival athlete would have pretty much had to have a record-setting year (see: Aaron Judge in 2022) to deny him of baseball's top individual prize.
But this year, Ohtani's first with the Los Angeles Dodgers after signing a massive deal in free agency, posed a different set of circumstances. An elbow injury meant that he wouldn't pitch at all in 2024, meaning the extent of his contributions would come as a full-time designated hitter.
And no full-time designated hitter has ever been named Most Valuable Player in the history of baseball.
Despite boasting superior offensive statistics, Ohtani entered the weekend as the second favorite (+375 odds at Caesars Sportsbook) behind teammate Mookie Betts (+120) to win the award. But when asked if L.A.'s shortstop would have to suffer some sort of serious injury to yield the catbird seat to Ohtani, Caesars' lead baseball trader, Eric Biggio, said that needn't necessarily be the case.
“As long as you have one big weekend against a marquee opponent — Ohtani hits two home runs in a Sunday Night Baseball game — we’ll cut his odds,” Biggio said Friday. “I don’t think the margin’s that big.”
As if on cue, Ohtani smashed two solo shots on Sunday to leads the Dodgers to a 3-0 victory over the Royals.
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Unfortunately for the Dodgers (albeit not for Ohtani's quest for history), the game also saw Betts break his left hand after getting hit by a pitch, an injury that will keep him sidelined for an indefinite period of time.
Mookie Betts was hit in the hand by a 98mph fastball and had to leave the game ??