{"id":1585228,"date":"2024-06-20T08:43:27","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T12:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1585228"},"modified":"2024-06-20T08:43:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T12:43:27","slug":"dodgers-shohei-ohtani-is-favored-to-be-the-first-designated-hitter-to-win-league-mvp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-is-favored-to-be-the-first-designated-hitter-to-win-league-mvp\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers\u2019 Shohei Ohtani is favored to be the first designated hitter to win League MVP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the National League, the Los Angeles Dodgers are 46-30. That\u2019s the third-best record in the NL over halfway through June. The team is coming off a 7-6 loss to the Rockies in Colorado on Wednesday. Despite the loss, the Dodgers are still first in the NL West. This offseason, the team signed free-agent superstar Shohei Ohtani to a massive 10-year, $700 million deal. During the 2023 season, Ohtani injured a ligament in his elbow and couldn\u2019t pitch for the rest of the season. However, the 29-year-old was still able to bat for the Angels in 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even with an injured elbow, Ohtani was still able to bat. He\u2019s one of the rare players in the league who can bat just as well as he can pitch. With the Angels in 2023, Ohtani hit an NL-high 44 home runs and had a 1.066 OPS&gt;. That earned Ohtani his second MVP trophy in three seasons. In 2024, Ohtani is off to another great start. He\u2019s only hitting this season due to his elbow injury. Currently, Ohtani is leading the NL with 57 runs scored and 20 home runs. He\u2019s on pace to win MVP again this season. Sportsbooks have Ohtani at (+125) to win NL MVP in 2024. The next closest is Philadelphia\u2019s Bryce Harper at (+300). Barring a massive dropoff, Ohtani is setting himself up for another MVP trophy.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>There had been a stigma in the past on designated hitters being able to win MVP<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Caesars Sportsbook has a lead baseball trader named Eric Biggio. He mentioned the era of baseball before the designated hitter came to the National League. Biggio references Seattle\u2019s Edgar Martinez and Chicago\u2019s Frank Thomas as players who were worthy of winning MVP as a designated hitter. Now that both leagues do not allow pitchers to hit, it\u2019s less stigmatic for a DH to win the MVP. With Shohei Ohtani winning the award in the past, the chances of him winning as a DH are higher than any other player.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Biggio noted that DHs would not get recognition in the past because they were sometimes \u201cliabilities\u201d.Certain players could only hit and not play a position on the field. That doesn\u2019t help out their team and leaves them out of MVP contention no matter how dominant they are batting. Shohei Ohtani is a rare expectation to that rule. Voters are aware of his injury and know he\u2019d be pitching and hitting if not for his injury. They take that into account when voting for MVP. Despite not being able to pitch this season for the Dodgers, Ohtani is still having an impressive year as a hitter. The talented superstar is unlike any player we\u2019ve seen in quite some time. Shohei Ohtani is a dual-threat player and the Dodgers are missing out on his pitching this season. However, he\u2019s making up for it by leading the NL in runs scored, home runs, slugging percentage, OPS, and total bases. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the National League, the Los Angeles Dodgers are 46-30. That\u2019s the third-best record in the NL over halfway through June. The team is coming off a 7-6 loss to the Rockies in Colorado on Wednesday. Despite the loss, the Dodgers are still first in the NL West. This offseason, the team signed free-agent superstar [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":304,"featured_media":1585229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[447316],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dodgers\u2019 Shohei Ohtani is favored to be the first designated hitter to win League MVP<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Could Shohei Ohtani from the Los Angeles Dodgers become the first player in MBL history to win MVP as a designated hitter?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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