With Shohei Ohtani unable to pitch this year, he was going to have to have a massive year at the plate to justify the first year of his hefty 10-year, $700 million deal he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers this offseason.
That’s exactly what he is doing, as the DH is off to a blistering pace that will put him in rare company if he is able to sustain it throughout the year.
Analyst Eric Cross shared a post on Twitter detailing what Ohtani’s numbers would look like if he kept this up all season, and it would put him at .370/.434/.705 batting splits with 136 runs scored, 61 doubles, 48 homers, 118 RBI, 40 steals, and 451 total bases, which would be the first 400-total-base season since 2001 and only the third time ever a player racked up over 450 total bases alongside Babe Ruth in 1921 and Rogers Hornsby in 1922.
It’s impressive what kind of numbers Ohtani is able to put up when he isn’t splitting his time between the mound and the plate, as he has shown zero signs of undergoing a difficult transition to Dodger Blue.
Ohtani isn’t slowing down at all, as he already has a 2.189 OPS so far in the month of May.
Having the protection of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Will Smith in the lineup around him has clearly had a positive impact on Ohtani, as with the Los Angeles Angels, he had very little help outside of Mike Trout, who has been injured often in recent years.
We don’t expect Ohtani to hit .370 all year, but there’s not much he could do to shock fans at this point.
