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

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.