Shohei Ohtani Set as Odds-On Favorite to Win NL MVP Ahead of Monday's Return to Pitching

Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani will return to the mound on Monday for the first time since 2023.

Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani is the favorite to win the NL MVP award this season. / William Navarro-Imagn Images

Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani is having a dominant season in 2025, and it has a chance to get even better.

On Sunday night, the Dodgers announced that Ohtani will return to the mound to make his first start with the franchise and first appearance on the mound since the 2023 season. Ohtani had been recovering from Tommy John surgery from September 2023 when he was a member of the Los Angeles Angels.

Shohei Ohtani will be the starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers tomorrow night against the San Diego Padres.

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 16, 2025

With Ohtani set to take the mound against the San Diego Padres, he's now moved to a -300 favorite to win NL MVP, putting him in the driver's seat to capture the fourth MVP award of his already historic career.

Latest Odds to Win NL MVP in 2025

Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook.

• Shohei Ohtani: -300
• Pete Crow-Armstrong: +850
• Corbin Carroll: +1300
• Pete Alonso: +2200
• Freddie Freeman: +2200
• Fernando Tatis Jr.: +2500
• Kyle Tucker: +3000
• Juan Soto: +3500
• Francisco Lindor: +4000
• Kyle Schwarber: +4500

At -300 odds, Ohtani has an implied probability of 75 percent to win the NL MVP this season. While the Dodgers sluggers already was the favorite just off of his hitting stats alone, we've seen in the past that adding his pitching to the mix makes him almost impossible to beat in this market.

No other player in MLB can put up both hitting and pitching numbers like Ohtani, making him a 1-of-1 player that is extremely valuable to his team. In his career as a pitcher, Ohtani is 38-19 with a 3.01 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and an impressive 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings.

This season, just as a hitter, Ohtani has put up some gaudy numbers. He enters Monday's action with a .297/.393/.642 slash line while smacking an NL-best 25 homers. He leads the National League in homers, runs scored, OPS, total bases, OPS+, slugging percentage and has an impressive 3.6 WAR.

The Dodgers are in first place in the NL West as well, only furthering Ohtani's case as the NL's MVP.

It'll be interesting to see how far the Dodgers let Ohtani go in his first start in nearly two years, but no matter what the pitching aspect to his game should add value in his MVP case.

As long as Ohtani doesn't go into a slump at the dish, he already had the MVP in his sights before returning to the mound. Now, he could be nearly impossible to catch in this market if he finds his All-Star from on the mound to close out the 2025 season.

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Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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