Sammy Sosa was a co-winner with an American, and Wayne Gretzky was 43 years ago. Since then, no non-American has won it on their own.
In the past 42 years, can you name one that came as close to deserving it as Othani?
But if somebody thinks it’s that much of a “problem,” it shouldn’t be that hard to find another Dodger - probably a career player who won his first ring - to join him in the award.
If you go strictly by “what they did in the past,” Simone Biles would not have won, or at least not won by herself, in 2024.
Well, to me at least, being a Cy Young caliber pitcher while at the same time being a home run king caliber hitter is “Babe Ruthian” stuff.
With no DH in the olden days, how did Ruth not do both “at once?”
He was a pitcher early in his career, but his home run hitting really took off after he started playing in the outfield instead.
Yeah. Shohei Ohtani last year. They gave it to Simone Biles, though, who honestly was a also a good choice.
The year before they gave it to a college football coach whose team was ranked 25th.
Ruth was signed as a pitcher by the Red Sox, and that was his full time job for five years, during which he was a terrific pitcher and a World Series hero. He was obviously the best hitting pitcher in the majors, but he was mostly just hitting when he pitched plus the odd pinch hitting appearance; he didn’t play any other position but pitcher his first four years in the league.
In 1918 the Red Sox started letting him play some outfield when he wasn’t pitching and despite only playing about two third of the time he hit 11 home runs, enough to lead the league. So they let him play more outfield the next year and he hit 29, which was the new major league record, but they were already reducing his pitching duties.
When ruth was trade to the Yankees in 1920 they Yankees decided to not have him pitch (well, he pitched one game) so he could concentrate on hitting. He promptly had the greatest offensive season a person had ever had, thereby reinforcing the wisdom of that decision.
Bearing in mind that the award is, at least allegedly, for performance this year: Ohtani didn’t pitch a lot in 2025, as he had been continuing to rehabilitate from the UCL elbow surgery he had in late 2023. He started 14 games in the regular season, but was mostly an “opener,” and only threw 47 innings.
Noted. The award is “for the year”, so that’s all that should be considered.
Babe Ruth didn’t do that though. He was not a home run king hitter while he was pitching. He did them in the same career, but not at the same time.
1915 was when he first started playing in the majors, for the Red Sox. He had 4 home runs that year, batted a very good .315 and was 18-8 as a pitcher. He was getting a reputation for long home runs even back then and home runs were relatively rare back in those days, but he wasn’t the king of home runs he became later.
In 1916 he was an spectacular pitcher, the best in the league, and was capped off by a 14 inning complete game in Game 2 of the World Series. He also had 9 shutouts that year, which was a record for left-handed pitchers that was unmatched until 1978.
He continued his excellent pitching into 1917, but wasn’t used as a batter very much at that time. Things were changing because the US entered WWI, and in 1918 they had a shortened season due to the war. Ruth mostly played as an outfielder that year, and that was when he started his home run prowess, sharing the home run title that year (with 11 total).
In 1919, he only pitched 17 times in 130 games, and continued being a massive slugger. That year he was traded to the Yankees, and he continued being a slugger. His pitching career was basically over, as his hitting talent was superb.
Overall, he played just over 2,500 games in his career, but only pitched for 163 of them. So, what Ohtani is doing isn’t really “Babe Ruthian”, because Babe Ruth wasn’t dominating as a home run hitter and pitcher at the same time.
And this is a good point. Whether Ohtani continues to be both a pitcher and a hitter I think is up in the air, as he hasn’t been used as much as a pitcher this year as he was before. Maybe if he recovers he’ll go back to that. And he probably has a long career ahead of him, where we will have to see what his full arc is.
Thanks, I didn’t realize that. So, what he’s doing isn’t “Babe Ruthian”, it’s “Shohei Ohtanian”. LOL
I think that was largely due to the fact that he was still effectively in rehab for his elbow. The Dodgers didn’t even begin to use him as a pitcher in actual games until mid-June, and they slowly ramped up the number of innings he pitched in each start; by late August, he was going 5+ innings per start. In addition, he was typically pitching on 6+ days’ rest.
His pitching performance in Game 4 of the NLCS suggests that, if he’s not yet fully recovered, he’s close.
But, I tend to agree, and it’s been suggested for years (pretty much since his first elbow surgery) that he may not wind up being a two-way player for his entire career.
The way SI usually does it, winning back-to-back titles counts as something that happened “this year.” Explain how Madison Bumgarner won in 2014 if you don’t include the Giants’ World Series wins in 2010 and 2012 as well.
Update: here is a change in my prediction list:
- If the Dodgers win: Shohei Othani.
If the Blue Jays win: Don Mattingly, for his “finally gets a ring after 40 years” story. - A’ja Wilson
- Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, although they may be saving her for 2028 - then again, Mary Decker Slaney won in 1983 after her World Championships performance.
Theoretically, the Nobel Prizes are also for accomplishments “this year”. But in practice, at least for the science prizes, that almost never happens. Rather, it’s generally work whose significance has become apparent this year.
The year Serena Williams got it, Novak Djokovic had a better year.
Here’s the post-World Series updated list:
- Shohei Ohtani
- Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto
It almost certainly has to be somebody from the Dodgers, especially with back-to-back titles - A’ja Wilson
- Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone