Alyssa Maldonado
On July 11th, the best of the best athletes will come together for one night in Los Angeles and be honored and recognized for their “Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly” award show. One familiar face, none other than newly promoted lead-off Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani has been nominated for Best MLB Player and Best Athlete in a Male Sport. In the Best MLB player category, he goes against Braves’ Ronald Acuña Jr., Rangers’ shortstop and former Dodger Corey Seager, and Yankees’ pitcher Gerrit Cole. Ironically all nominees have been dealing with injuries this season, but have been putting on quite a performance this season.
In the category for Best Athlete in a Male Sport, the Japanese native faces NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes, professional golfer Scottie Scheffler, and NHL center Connor McDavid. Mahomes won in this category last year. However, in 2022 Ohtani took home the ESPY when he went against athletes like Stephen Curry, Aaron Rodgers, and current opponent Connor McDavid.
This is not the first experience with the award show, Ohtani has won the ESPY for Best MLB Player in the last three years. If he were to win this year’s ESPY, he would be the first MLB player to win the award for four consecutive years, passing legend Barry Bonds who won the award in 2002-2004. He would also join the list with the most wins in the category tying with Bonds and former Dodger Albert Pujols.
Ohtani has been having another memorable year, as he is currently leading the NL in home runs with 25 this season. He is batting a .322 average, with 100 hits and 61 RBIs. Ohtani has been on a 10-game consecutive hit streak since being bumped to the lead-off spot due to Mookie Betts’ hand injury. Since Betts has been sidelined, Ohtani has been hitting a .444 and has hit 8 home runs during this hot streak. Even during his 2023 campaign with the Angels, Ohtani hit a .304 batting average and maintained a 3.14 ERA before focusing on just hitting due to an elbow injury. He was the unanimous winner for the American League’s MVP and was able to fight through injury to finish the season with 44 home runs, 95 RBIs, and a slugging percentage of .654. How can this man not be considered the best MLB player this year?
Ohtani cannot win this on his own and would need the help of fans to break more records. The ESPYs are a fan-voting award show. So, don’t forget to vote for Ohtani as fans have until July 11th, voting will be closed at 5 p.m. EST and fans can tune into ABC to watch the show at 8 p.m. EST. Click the link to vote and see one of our favorite Dodgers bring home the ESPY!
