Dodgers Star Predicted to Win Major End of Season Award by National Outlet

Some teams are built for deep postseason runs just like some players are primed to compete for end-of-season awards. Newsweek released their early Major League Baseball award predictions on Thursday with a Los Angeles Dodgers star set to make history.

Noah Camras, a contributing sports writer for Newsweek, predicted that designated hitter Shohei Ohtani would be named the National League's Most Valuable Player.

"Ohtani would make history as the first full-time DH to win the award but that's exactly what we're predicting," writes Camras. "Ohtani enters Thursday in the top five in the NL in batting average (.311, 4th), slugging percentage (.587, 2nd), OPS (.970, 2nd), home runs (17, T-2nd), and doubles (18, T-4th). In the advanced stats, he's second in wRC+ (174) and second in fWAR (3.2). He tends to get even better in the summer, too."

We're just under 3 months into the 2024 MLB season, so I thought it was a perfect time for some way-too-early award predictions.

Will Shohei Ohtani become the first full-time DH to win MVP? Is Paul Skenes the Rookie of the Year?

My latest for @Newsweek:https://t.co/vwVm99XbrC
— Noah Camras (@noahcamras) June 13, 2024

The Dodgers have only had three seasons in franchise history when a player hit at least 30 home runs and stole at least 30 bases. Matt Kemp was the last to accomplish the feat in 2011.

So far this season, Ohtani is on pace for a 30-30 season, which would be unprecedented for a designated hitter in major league history. There is a little more than two weeks left before the halfway mark and Ohtani is on pace for 40 home runs and 35 steals.

Ohtani has proven himself to be one of the most prolific hitters in Dodgers history and could solidify himself as one of the best hitters in baseball history if he keeps this pace and does win the NL MVP at the end of the season.