Shohei Ohtani was voted the unanimous winner of the 2024 National League MVP Award for his historic season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he was officially recognized on Saturday at the annual Baseball Writers’ Association of America dinner in New York.
The 30-year-old earned the honor after becoming MLB’s first 50-50 player in his debut season with the Dodgers.
Ohtani led all NL players in home runs (54), RBI (130) and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.036). He also finished with a career-best 59 stolen bases while hitting .310/.390/.646 with 38 doubles, seven triples, 134 runs scored, 130 RBI and a 181 wRC+ with 9.1 WAR.
In addition to his MVP honors, he has won numerous other awards.
The 2024 World Series champion was previously named the NL Hank Aaron Award winner, the Edgar Martinez Outstanding Designated Hitter, the NL Outstanding Player as part of the Players Choice Awards, Sporting News’ MLB Player of the Year, AP’s Male Athlete of the Year and he won his third Silver Slugger Award while being selected to the All-MLB Team.
Shohei Ohtani’s MVP speech
Ohtani was not able to be in person to accept the award as he deals with the fallout of the Los Angeles wildfires, but he did send in a recorded speech.
“I would like to thank the BBWAA for this special NL MVP Award,” Ohtani started in English. “This was a very special year in so many ways and there are a lot of people to thank.
“I would like to start off by thanking the entire Los Angeles Dodgers organization for the opportunity they gave me to play for this historical franchise. Thank you to all the owners, led by Mark Walter, to the entire front office, especially Stan Kasten, Lon Rosen, Andrew Friedman and Brandon Gomes.
“To all my teammates and the coaching staff, trainers, and all the behind the scenes staff for helping me and encouraging me throughout the year. And lastly, to the fans, I felt your support every day. Also, a special shoutout to Will Ireton.
“To my support group, starting with my agent, Nez Balelo, thank you for all you do. CAA Sports, Matt, Julia, Carly, thank you. To my beautiful wife, thank you for always being there for me, and to my family and friends for their support.
“Lastly, I wanted to dedicate this award to the entire city of Los Angeles. To all the first responders, firefighters and to all of the fire departments for their heroic efforts to combat these fires in Los Angeles. Stay strong and united. We will get through this. Thank you.”
Ohtani made donation to wildfire relief efforts
As the Dodgers and 11 other professional sports teams from the area joined forces for those impacted by the Southern California wildfires, Ohtani and his wife Mamiko pledged a $500,000 donation to multiple organizations providing relief efforts.
Ohtani made the announcement on his Instagram account.
“Our hearts go out to all the firefighters who continue to fight for us during the fires in LA,” Ohtani wrote in the caption. “We’ll be donating $500,000 to help those firefighters and those forced to live in shelters to help animals in need.
“The Los Angeles Dodgers are also working together with teams from other competitions to help sell t-shirts and more. I hope you all will consider this. I hope you recover soon. LA Strong.”
