Sho-Time - The Face of Major League Baseball

By: Ben Friend 10/15/25

Shohei Ohtani has made his mark as one of the best players in baseball history.

It's not every day you see two-way players in sports. We’ve seen a few examples in the NFL of Deion Sanders and Travis Hunter, but in Major League Baseball it's very rare to see a player excel at both pitching and hitting. Everyone has heard of Babe Ruth and his ability to hit home runs and pitch at the same time, but what Shohei Ohtani is doing right now is nothing short of incredible, and he is etching his name into the greats of baseball.

There are many players in the MLB right now that you could argue are the face of the league, but none quite stack up to the level that we are seeing right now from Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani just made his postseason pitching debut against the Philadelphia Phillies, where he threw 6 innings of three-run baseball with nine strikeouts . This was an impressive postseason pitching debut for any player, but at the same time, Shohei was hitting leadoff for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ohtani is without a doubt the best player on the field every night he plays, and his versatility is the reason he is such a dangerous weapon.

Last year, Ohtani made history by creating the 50/50 club en route to his third MVP award. Ohtani hit 54 home runs on the season while also stealing a whopping 59 bases . These numbers are unprecedented for any player and the fact that someone with the ability to be a power hitting threat can also steal that many bases in a season is mind-boggling to anyone. As a hitter, Ohtani could already be seen as the face of the MLB. He has put up consistent offensive numbers throughout his career, with a career batting average of .282, and an ops (a metric used to measure a players offensive performance by combining on base percentage and slugging percentage) of .957. This season, Ohtani topped his career high in home runs from last year hitting 55 , and he is the overwhelming favorite to win the National League MVP award. This would be Ohtani's fourth MVP award, a feat that only one other player has ever achieved before: Barry Bonds.

The offensive numbers already make Ohtani arguably the best player in the MLB, but his ability to serve as an all-star caliber starting pitcher makes it hard to argue that he isn't the face of the league. As a pitcher in his career, Ohtani has a 3.00 ERA in 100 games pitched . This season Ohtani made his pitching debut on June 16 against the San Diego Padres, his first time pitching since August of 2023 after he underwent UCL reconstruction. Ohtani has been solid as a starting pitcher this season with a 2.87 ERA and is throwing harder than ever with a fastball consistently touching 100 miles per hour.

Shohei Ohtani's stats as both a hitter and pitcher are one the most extraordinary things anyone has ever watched in the MLB, and it is the reason as to why he is the current face of the league. If the stats aren't enough to back it up, Ohtani has contributed to winning baseball teams throughout his career and is coming off a championship winning season with the Dodgers. This year, Ohtani is back in the playoffs flashing his generational talent and looks to capture yet another world series title and continue to make his mark on baseball history.