He’s the MVP.
No, not Shohei Ohtani -- although Ohtani is the reigning National League Most Valuable Player and has won four Most Valuable Player Awards during his magnificent career.
We’re talking about the Most Valuable Pup. That would be Ohtani’s famous dog, Decoy. And with Decoy’s human off to a historic start to this season on the mound, it makes a lot of sense that Decoy’s face would be featured on Ohtani’s cleats.
Hey, Decoy has already had a book written about him and is one of the most recognizable dogs on the planet. So why not his own shoe?
Ohtani was wearing blue New Balance cleats with red laces in another gem of a performance on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, when the two-way superstar threw seven scoreless innings in the Dodgers’ 4-0 win over the Giants.
On the tongue of those kicks? Decoy’s likeness in all its canine glory. The way ballplayers tend to be, don’t be surprised if the Decoy cleats are here to stay after Ohtani’s masterful outing, which lowered his ERA to 0.82 over his first seven starts of the 2026 campaign.