3 reasons Shohei Ohtani should win Players Choice Awards’ Player of Year

Shohei Ohtani was named as a finalist for 2021 Players Choice Award for Player of the Year.

The players voted, and paid their respects towards the LA Angels‘ three-way superstar.

In the running for the award with Ohtani are Bryce Harper and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Neither is anywhere close to ShoTime’s level.

No. 3 reason Shohei Ohtani should win Players Choice Awards’ Player of the Year: Baserunning

Shohei Ohtani is about as elite as they come as a baserunner. Harper and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. certainly can’t relate.

Ohtani was named the fastest baserunner in the American League by his peers, a league in which Guerrero plays in. Guerrero has a total of five stolen bases in his entire career. Ohtani had 26 in this season alone.

As for Harper, has he ever had 26 stolen bases? Nope, and he’s never even been close. The most he’s ever had is 21.

Ohtani literally stole home this year. Harper hasn’t done that in nearly a decade and I don’t even think Guerrero’s even done that in MLB The Show.

Baserunning is an area of the game that Ohtani excels at better than almost anyone in this league, and certainly more than the other two finalists for Player of the Year.

Who can stretch a long single into a double? Ohtani can, Harper doesn’t have enough speed to do it, and Guerrero would get thrown out by ten miles if he tried.

Who can stretch a shot to the wall into a triple? Harper can’t these days (only did it once all year), but Ohtani did it eight times. That’s twice more than Guerrero, and more than any other player in baseball.

ShoTime’s one of a kind.

No. 1 reason Shohei Ohtani should win Players Choice Awards’ Player of the Year: He does more with less

Nobody does more with less in this league than Shohei Ohtani.

Ohtani was promised to have Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon, and Justin Upton to protect him in the lineup this year. All three had season-ending injuries, and couldn’t be there for him.

Yet Ohtani still put up better numbers than Harper and almost put up Guerrero numbers. Harper and Guerrero certainly didn’t have the protection deficiencies that Ohtani did.

Also, Ohtani had a 9-2 record on the mound despite playing on a much worse team than both Harper’s Phillies and Guerrero’s Blue Jays.

He almost hit double-digit wins (and recorded just two losses) despite playing on one of the worst defensive teams in baseball. He also did it on a team that gave him no run support.

The Angels couldn’t hit this season. They had a 94 wRC+, which was 17th in the Bigs. They had a .717 OPS, which was 19th in the Majors.

Scoring just 723 runs, the injury-ravaged Angels lineup scored just the 17th-most runs in MLB. They couldn’t hit, and Ohtani still put the team on his back, and posted a 9-2 record.

Nobody excels with less to work with than Ohtani. Nobody accomplished more than what Ohtani did this season, and it isn’t even close.