5 ways Ohtani has made MVP history

Up until Freddie Freeman squeezed Mookie Betts' throw to end Game 7 of the World Series, the Dodgers’ chances for a repeat were a source of enormous suspense.

There was not nearly so much doubt before Thursday night's announcement that Shohei Ohtani had won the 2025 National League Most Valuable Player Award, beating out fellow finalists Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies and Juan Soto of the Mets in unanimous fashion. Ohtani had been considered a strong favorite for the award, after a season in which he posted a 1.014 OPS and hit 55 home runs at the plate. He also returned to the mound for the first time since 2023 and delivered a 2.87 ERA and 62 strikeouts in 47 innings over 14 starts.

Even before this latest award, Ohtani had made so much history. He had made so much MVP history. In 2023, he became the first player to win multiple MVP Awards by a unanimous vote, as well as the first player born in Japan with two MVPs. (He's now extended both of those records twice.) In 2024, he joined Hall of Famer Frank Robinson as the only players to be named MVP in both leagues. And he became only the sixth player to win an MVP with multiple teams.

But in 2025, Ohtani outdid himself. Here are five ways Ohtani’s latest MVP Award was a momentous achievement.

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1) Four total MVP Awards
Ohtani was already in select company when it comes to the most career MVP wins. He took AL MVP honors with the Angels in 2021 and 2023, then earned NL honors for the first time after last season, his first with the Dodgers. That made Ohtani one of 11 players with exactly three MVP trophies, entering 2025, although the Yankees' Aaron Judge joined that cohort on Thursday, winning his third AL MVP. Of the other 10, seven are in the Hall of Fame, another is headed there soon (former Ohtani teammate Albert Pujols), and one more is still active (another former Ohtani teammate, Mike Trout). The final name on the list is Alex Rodriguez.

But with his fourth win, Ohtani pulled ahead of that group and became just the second player in history with at least four MVP wins. Only Barry Bonds (seven) has more.

2) Third straight MVP Award
We’ve already established that Ohtani is part of a select group to win at least three total MVP Awards, so it should be no surprise that winning three in a row is extremely rare. In fact, Bonds had been the only one to do it, winning four straight with the Giants from 2001-04. Thirteen other players, now including Judge, have won exactly two in a row since the BBWAA began handing out MVPs in 1931. But none other than Bonds ever made it three -- until now.

3) Back-to-back champ + MVP
So winning consecutive MVP Awards is rare. But what about doing it at the same time you also win consecutive World Series titles? That was nearly unprecedented. Among that aforementioned list of back-to-back MVPs, only Joe Morgan of the 1975-76 Reds had pulled off that feat, until Ohtani matched him over the past two years. Besides Ohtani and Morgan, the Yankees' Mickey Mantle (1956, '62) and Joe DiMaggio (1939, '41, '47) are the only players to even win an MVP Award and a World Series title in the same season multiple times over the course of their careers.

And while we’re on the subject of the Dodgers’ postseason success, there’s also this: Ohtani was named MVP of this year’s NLCS against the Brewers. Now that he's added the 2025 NL MVP Award to that accomplishment, he is only the seventh player -- and first since 2010 (Texas’ Josh Hamilton) -- to claim an LCS or World Series MVP Award in the same year as a regular season MVP. The list already included one Dodger: Sandy Koufax, who was the NL and World Series MVP in 1963.

4) Two MVP Awards as a Dodger
You won’t be surprised to know that a franchise with as long and proud a history as the Dodgers is not exactly hurting for MVPs. This was their 14th win, breaking a tie with the rival Giants for the third most, behind only the Yankees (22) and Cardinals (18). Interestingly, though, those awards have been spread out across 10 different players. After the team moved to Los Angeles, its first seven MVP trophies were claimed by seven different players, Ohtani included. Now the eighth also belongs to Ohtani, who joins legendary catcher Roy Campanella -- who won with Brooklyn in 1951, ‘53 and ‘55 -- as the only players to win multiple times in a Dodgers uniform.

Not only did Ohtani join Campanella in that select group, but he also became only the second player in history to win back-to-back MVP Awards in his first two seasons with a franchise. The other was Maris, who was AL MVP in 1960 and ‘61 after the Yankees acquired him in a trade with the Kansas City Athletics in December 1959.

5) Third MVP Award as a (part-time) pitcher
Before we go any further, let’s state it plainly: Ohtani defies comparison to any other player in Major League history, including Babe Ruth. With that said … in winning his fourth MVP Award, he also earned his third after a season in which he was a two-way player. (Last year’s came as a full-time DH while he was recovering from elbow surgery.) While Ohtani obviously isn’t an MVP candidate on the strength of his pitching alone, that is part of his case.

That’s notable, in the context of recent MVP Awards. In the 28 years prior to Ohtani’s first MVP win (1993-2020), there were 56 individual MVP seasons, and only two of those were put together by players who pitched (Justin Verlander in 2011 and Clayton Kershaw in 2014). With Ohtani winning in 2025, he has passed that total on his own.