Does Shohei Ohtani Need to Worry About Juan Soto's MVP Message?

Shohei Ohtani enters the 2026 season with four career MVP Awards to his name, with each won unanimous fashion and split evenly between the American League and National League.

Considering Ohtani is going to be pitching for a full season once again, odds are in his favor to claim more hardware in his third season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. But New York Mets superstar Juan Soto has visions of snapping Ohtani's streak in the NL.

Juan Soto's warning to Shohei Ohtani for MVP

According to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, Soto's message to Ohtani was he expects to be part of the MVP race as well and he needs to continue performing.

“I’m going to be there every year, too,” Soto said in response to that notion. “So he better keep doing what he’s doing, because I’m coming.”

Soto's best finish in MVP voting was when he came in second place to Philadelphia Phillies' Bryce Harper in 2021. Overall, Soto has received votes for MVP in six different seasons, placing in the top 10 in each instance.

The only instance in which Soto and Ohtani both received MVP votes in the same season was last year, when the Mets star placed third.

Can Juan Soto beat Shohei Ohtani for MVP?

Considering that Ohtani is pulling off two-way duties at an unprecedented level of success, he figures to have a lock on the MVP Award seemingly each season.

But Ohtani can fall short in voting, like he did to New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge for AL MVP in 2022. However, that required Judge producing historic statistics in order to capture the honor.

Judge broke Roger Maris' AL record with 62 home runs, and he also led the Majors in runs (133), RBI (131), on-base percentage (.425), slugging (.686), on-base plus slugging (1.111), OPS+ (211) and total bases (391).

Soto certainly possesses enough talent to have a prolific offensive season, but Judge's record-setting year corresponded with Ohtani experiencing some regression from his AL MVP campaign in 2021.

What already was a sure-fire Hall of Fame career has taken a step forward the past two seasons. Ohtani set career highs with 54 home runs and 130 RBI in 2024, then surpassed his long ball total by clubbing 55 last season. Ohtani additionally set a new career high with 146 runs scored in 2025.

Should he produce anything close to what's been seen the last two seasons with the Dodgers, plus remain healthy as a pitcher, it would be difficult for Soto--or anyone else for that matter--to pry the NL MVP Award from Ohtani.

With that largely considered a foregone conclusion, there is an expectation that Ohtani will pursue becoming the first Japanese pitcher to ever win a Cy Young Award. Though for his part, Ohtani has stated his focus is simply on being healthy.