Shohei Ohtani wins one of most prestigious awards in MLB history

Shohei Ohtani was everything for the LA Angels this season.

Posting an 8.1 fWAR, he was all three of the Ace of our team, the fastest baserunner in the American League, and the best hitter in the American League. The soon-to-be named American League MVP, he’s already been named the Baseball Digest Player of the Year.

He had what might be the greatest season of all time, and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred just added another bullet point to that argument.

Shohei Ohtani has now received the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement award.

Shohei Ohtani is just the 16th recipient of this award in MLB history. It’s the first time Rob Manfred has ever given it to anybody.

There’s no award more valuable in baseball than this award, as it is certainly not awarded annually.

Manfred had no choice but to hand it to Ohtani, who is the first player in history to ever draw Babe Ruth comparisons. Obviously, many think he was even better this year than Ruth was as a two-way player.

Ohtani hit .257/.372/.592 (.965 OPS) with 46 home runs, 100 runs scored, 103 RBI, 8 triples, and 26 stolen bases. That’s only what he did offensively. He also played the outfield many times for the Angels, and started 23 games on the mound, going 9-2 with a 3.18 ERA and a 1.090 WHIP.

If this is not the best season we’ve ever seen, it’s certainly the second-best behind Ruth’s 1919 two-way year. Nobody in the game came close to being as valuable of a player as Ohtani was this year. He was the starting DH for the American League All-Star team, as well as the starting pitcher.

He deserves all the awards he has won so far this offseason, and all the awards he is going to continue to win this offseason.