In baseball, as in life, there are certain laws we take for granted—gravity pulls down, water runs downhill, and Shohei Ohtani can’t possibly outdo himself again. And yet, here we are, with the 2025 season barreling into June, and Ohtani—at age 30, no less—has gone and turned the dial another notch. Last year, he was an MVP. This year, he’s something more, something rarer: a player doing the unimaginable for a second act. While the Dodgers navigate injuries and inconsistency, it’s Ohtani’s bat—so consistent, so devastating—that continues to steady the ship and stir the imagination.

We’ve grown almost numb to Ohtani’s numbers. That’s the danger of sustained brilliance. But pause for a moment and take in the reality: a .304/.398/.655 slash line, a 1.053 OPS, and an OPS+ that ranks him 94% better than league average. That’s not just dominance—it’s artistry. Weighted On-Base Average, or wOBA, a stat that values all forms of offensive contribution, tells us his 2025 mark of .437 is a career high. He’s doing all this while still moonlighting as the planet’s most famous two-way player, even if he hasn’t thrown a pitch this season. In short: he is somehow, someway, better than the version of himself that already conquered baseball last year.

We love to talk about pace—especially in May, when it begins to carry some credibility. In 2025, Ohtani’s current projections read like the fevered dream of a sabermetrician: 55 homers, 412 total bases, 100 walks, 169 runs scored. That last number would trail only Babe Ruth’s hallowed 1921 total in the modern era. And he’s doing it all from the leadoff spot. Let that sink in. If he reaches 100 RBIs in that role, he’ll join a club so exclusive you can count its members on one hand. It’s history whispering to us in real time—and it’s wearing number 17 in Dodger blue.

What’s most remarkable—perhaps even unsettling for opposing pitchers—is how Ohtani’s quality of contact has actually improved. According to Statcast, he’s hitting the ball harder, swinging more efficiently, chasing less, and whiffing less. He’s even adjusted his stance slightly, a quiet nod to the kind of self-awareness and refinement that separates the merely great from the generational. His xwOBA—expected weighted on-base average, which strips away luck and isolates skill—is a staggering .486. That figure suggests he’s underperforming. Let’s say that again: Ohtani, the best hitter in the National League, has been unlucky.

And what of the running game? He’s throttled back the stolen bases, yes—perhaps a tactical decision as he readies for his eventual return to the mound—but he’s become more efficient, taking extra bases more often and grounding into fewer double plays. This is a ballplayer fine-tuning his game not for the highlight reel, but for maximum team value. And still, he sits in the 98th percentile for baserunning. We are witnessing a player who seems to learn in real-time, adjusting, improving, elevating—even when already stationed on baseball’s Mount Olympus.

​In this 2025 campaign, Shohei Ohtani is reminding us why we watch. Not for the expected, but for the wondrous. For the player who doesn’t just chase legends—he becomes one, breath by breath, at-bat by at-bat. He isn’t just playing baseball; he’s redefining its parameters. And if we’ve learned anything from Ohtani, it’s that the ceiling is just another thing he hasn’t reached yet.