Angels Superstar Shohei Ohtani Earns Major End of Season Award After Dominant Season
It could be safe to assume that Shohei Ohtani will be busy this award season. The two-way superstar had one of the most historic seasons ever for what he did at the plate and on the mound.
The first of his awards are rolling in as he has been named the 2023 MLB Player of the Year by Baseball America.
Baseball America gives out this award once a year to the best player in the MLB for the season.
Ohtani is more than deserving of this award for the 2023 year.
At the plate, Ohtani hit a career-best .304/.412/.654 and slugged an American League high 44 home runs. Ohtani was also on top of the league in OPS with 1.044. He still led the MLB despite missing the last month of the season.
Ohtani's dominance carried over to the mound as well. Even though he missed more than a month's worth of starts, Ohtani went 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA in 132 innings.
He led the AL in opposing batting average as he held batters to a .184 average.
This is the second time that Ohtani has won the award. He previously claimed the title in 2021.
Ohtani and his teammate, Mike Trout, have won six of the last 11 Baseball America MLB Player of the Year awards.
The award started in 1998 when Mark McGwire took home the title. During that season he set the home run record which has been eclipsed since by Barry Bonds.
With the way that Ohtani's career is going, it looks like he won't be done winning this award anytime soon.
