Will Shohei Ohtani Ever Be the Best at Both at the Same Time?

Right now, if one asks the question of who the best player in baseball is, that question is rhetorical, as Shohei Ohtani is one of a kind.

Baseball’s unicorn dazzles the sport year in, and year out, whether it be hitting 50+ home runs in back-to-back seasons, or having a little league game in a series-clinching victory in the NCLS, one in which Ohtani struck out 10 across six shutout innings, while also hitting three home runs.

Ohtani has won the MVP in four of the last five years, and in each of his first two seasons in the National League as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Considering the way he has come out the gates on the mound this season, Ohtani is the runaway favorite to win yet another MVP this season, and he may even have his sights set on his first career Cy Young Award.

Through seven starts, Ohtani has allowed just four earned runs across 44 innings pitched. If qualified, Ohtani would be leading MLB in ERA with his 0.82 mark. In three less starts than Paul Skenes, Ohtani has matched him in fWAR (1.6) and bested him in bWAR (1.9 to 1.5).

While the results have been outstanding on the mound, it is fair to note that the offensive side of things have not come as easily lately for Ohtani. The energy he is expending on the mound could certainly be the culprit.

Shohei Ohtani Is Off to a Notably Slow Start with the Bat

While Ohtani has come out scorched earth as a starting pitcher this year, the offensive side of his game has lagged behind a bit. His wRC+ is sitting at 142, which would be the lowest mark he has posted since his second season in the big leagues back in 2019.

By this time last year, Ohtani had already hit 16 home runs, scored 50 runs and had driven in 30. Across his first 45 games played in 2025, Ohtani hit .313/.408/.665, with a 189 wRC+. In comparison, Ohtani is hitting .272/.399/.473, with just seven home runs, 31 runs and 25 RBI this year.

Now getting that production on top of a pitcher who has is rocking a sub-1.00 ERA is unbelievable, but it is still a marked drop-off from the player who was rivaling Aaron Judge for being the game’s best slugger over the past two seasons.

What’s the Trade-Off to Being a Two-Way Player?

Despite the fact that he has given his team a quality start every single time this year, the Dodgers are 3-4 when Ohtani takes the mound. They have been held to one run or less in four of his seven starts, and Ohtani didn’t DH in two of them.

While I am not crazy of enough to suggest that Ohtani stop pitching, it is fair to note that doing so will prevent him from reaching his true peak as a hitter.

There are only two players in MLB history who have been able to do both at the same time. But Babe Ruth’s arc as a two-way player was far different from Ohtani’s, born out of playing in a different era.

Ruth entered the league as a pitcher (with no designated hitter), and in his second full season at just 21 years old, he led the league with a 1.75 ERA. He made 40 starts and went 23-12, and led the league with nine shutouts. His 158 ERA+ was the best in baseball.

While Ruth made the most of his at-bats when he was in there, he still was limited to his starts on the mound and pinch-hitting, as he did not play his first inning in left field until the 1918 season, two years later.

It was that season, where Ruth began to revolutionize the game, leading the league with 11 home runs as he began the transition into becoming the greatest slugger the game has ever seen.

By 1920, Ruth was no longer a member of the Boston Red Sox, and he also was no longer pitching. In his first season with the Yankees, it was decided that Ruth’s bat was more valuable than his arm, and he gave up pitching to focus on being the best hitter in baseball instead.

It was not until Ruth gave up pitching that he reached his full potential as a hitter, posting 50-HR seasons in back-to-back years in 1920 and 1921. Ruth led the league in OPS 13 times in a 14-year span, making his mark as the greatest slugger the game had ever seen.

Ohtani does not have many contemporaries in the game today. Judge may be the lone exception, as the Yankee slugger is the one man who has managed to knock Ohtani off the top pedestal in an MVP race back in 2022.

Judge has led the league in wRC+ in each of the last two seasons, and three of the last four, with the lone exception coming in 2023, when Judge missed time due to a hip injury, and Ohtani paced the league with a 180 wRC+.

Ohtani pitched to a 3.14 ERA across 23 starts that year, striking out 31.5% of the batters he faced.

On July 27, 2023, Ohtani pitched a shutout against the Detroit Tigers, in the first game of a doubleheader. Ohtani gave up just one hit, and he struck out eight in what still stands as the lone complete game of his career.

In the second game of the doubleheader, Ohtani went 2-for-3 with a pair of home runs, driving in three of 11 Angels’ runs, en route to a 11-4 slaughtering of the Tigers. The Angels had swept the series, and had won eight of their last nine games.

This doubleheader sweep came a day after the Angels pulled off a blockbuster trade to land Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López from the Chicago White Sox. The Angels were pushing their chips in around Ohtani, and they were immediately rewarded with Ohtani looking like the best pitcher and hitter on the planet in the same day.

Unfortunately for the Angels, and the baseball world, Ohtani’s two-way dominance was short-lived, as he would make three more starts before exiting an August 23 start after throwing just 26 pitches. Ohtani needed Tommy John surgery, but still managed to finish out the 2023 campaign to hit 44 home runs in 135 games.

To this date, 2023 is probably the most complete two-way season of Ohtani’s career.

Through 23 starts, had a 2.3 fWAR, so he was trending towards at least a three-win season had he remained healthy. His power dipped a little bit post-injury too, and by the time the Angels were out of it Ohtani was shut down in early September.

Despite missing nearly two months of the season on the mound, and the final month in the box, Ohtanit still managed to hit 44 home runs and post a near 9-win season. His 8.9 combined fWAR in 2023 was pacing to be higher than the 9.2 mark he posted in 2022.

Ohtani has found his way to be about a 9-win player every season since 2022. When he took a year off pitching in 2024, Ohtani devoted himself to being the best in baseball at stealing bases, and wound up with the first 50-50 season in MLB history.

While it has been amazing to see Ohtani back on the mound, there is the trade-off of not seeing him run the bases with the same aggression. It is a trade-off you are happy to make when he is pitching to a 0.82 ERA, but a trade-off nonetheless.

The thought exercise with Ohtani that is really interesting is evaluating what the trade-offs are with playing two ways, and how do you get the most valuable player.

What Will Be the Best Version of Shohei Ohtani?

Ohtani currently has a 142 wRC+, which is 30 points lower than his 172 mark last season.

If you are getting 70% of hitter Ohtani as the trade-off for getting 100% of pitcher Ohtani, that is a compromise the Dodgers will gladly make.

Right now, Ohtani has combined 2.9 fWAR, contributing 1.6 WAR to the Dodgers as pitcher, and 1.3 as a hitter. Extrapolate that over a full season and he is on pace for a career-best 9.6 fWAR.

That is not even factoring in the room for Ohtani to improve offensively, something that is likely to take pace over the course of the season, which could push him over to 10 wins for the first time in his career.

Over the next eight season where Ohtani is under contract with the Dodgers, is there a chance he ever puts it all together to the point where he is both the best hitter and the best pitcher on the planet at the same time?

Absolutely there is a chance we see that, as we saw it in that doubleheader with the Angels back in 2023, and we saw it again in Game 4 of the NLCS last year. Ohtani is the best player on every field he steps on, excluding the ones that Judge is standing on as well.

Judge has three 10+ fWAR seasons over the past four years, having proven to be more valuable than Ohtani in the fWAR department in each of those campaigns. From a straight WAR perspective, Judge might be proof that Ohtani would be more valuable to the Dodgers in right field, instead of on the mound.

We may never know what Ohtani looks like as full-time MLB outfielder, but that can’t stop me from dreaming about it.

If Ohtani gave up pitching, and played right field every day, his position player WAR would spike dramatically. This is because his offensive WAR would no longer be deducted because of him being DH, and if he was a plus fielder in right, there would be added value there as well.

Judge has two 11-win seasons under his belt, a number that Ohtani could easily match if he was producing to the level we saw in 2024 offensively, where you are getting the added value off the basepaths and in the field as well.

On the contrary, if Ohtani ever manages to play a full season at his best both with his bat and his arm, he could rack up WAR totals we have never seen before.

Each year, Ohtani enters the season as the favorite to win the MVP, because if he is healthy, there is quite literally no one more valuable in the sport when they can be your ace and your best hitter.

While he may never be the best hitter and the best pitcher in baseball at the same time, if he is even top 20 in both, he’s the best player in baseball, and looks to remain as such for a very long time.