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The story
An article by U.S. media pointing to trouble ahead for Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani’s bid for a fourth consecutive MVP award became a hot topic on 5ch. Ohtani has been unable to pitch for roughly two months, and his hitting also slumped in August, while his biggest rival is closing in fast. If he pulls it off, it would be only the second such feat in history since Barry Bonds. The thread split between skeptics saying “maybe the two-way act has hit its limit” and defenders arguing “just being a candidate in an off year makes him a monster,” with the discussion spreading into rival comparisons and historical MVP records.
Is Shohei Ohtani’s bid for a 4th straight MVP in trouble? The staggering gap with his rival that U.S. media points to
Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani is chasing what would be only the second four-consecutive-year MVP run in MLB history, but that possibility is starting to look shaky. He hasn’t taken the mound in roughly two months, and while his hitting has also cooled off in August, his biggest rival is surging. The claim comes from reporter Zach Heiny of the U.S. outlet Dodgers Beat.
Ohtani won MVP in 2023 with the Los Angeles Angels and in each of the following two years with the Dodgers; winning again this season would put him alongside Barry Bonds with four straight. He was widely seen as the frontrunner for most of the season, but the situation has shifted recently.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
For every other player, the list of contenders changes year to year.
Just you.
Everyone on Geisupo (the sports gossip board) hates Ohtani anyway.
He needs to promote that more, because nobody knows.
PCA played all the way to the end of the tournament for Team USA, though.
Not living up to the contract money.
He's clearly declining as a male athlete.
That's exactly where Ohtani is right now.
This is the first time he's had such a clearly bad season.
Ohtani having a bad season?
There was that COVID year, remember.
Last year too he was right on the edge of winning the home run title, but he didn't care and just rested up since the postseason was coming.
but turns out he's still a real candidate, lol. Ohtani really is a monster.
He crashed hard in August.
Up through August he was still in the running.
But even though he's technically "in it" now, it's just like Lindor two years ago or Schwarber last year — not really a real contest anymore.
Behind that otherworldly two-way performance, having two babies at home — yeah, that'll wear you out.
Guess he was really running a "three-way" act this whole time (pitcher, hitter, and dad).
PCA is doing it all with his bat alone.
PCA gets credit for his center-field defense too, you know.
He made another incredible defensive play again today.
That's exactly the thing —
take the steroids out of the picture and he's number one all-time.
Background and key points of this discussion
The four-consecutive-year MVP streak Ohtani is chasing would match the run Barry Bonds achieved from 2001 to 2004 — an era when Bonds was piling up home runs but was also dogged by steroid-use allegations. The jabs about historical records that come up in the thread only land if you know that context. “PCA,” named as a rival, is never explained and may be confusing to first-time readers, but appears to refer to a player who’s also praised for his center-field defense. Ohtani also underwent elbow surgery in 2023, and since returning to pitching his rest between starts and pitch counts have been carefully managed, so this roughly two-month absence could be seen as an extension of that caution — though the thread doesn’t mention this. It’s also worth noting that the original article doesn’t spell out that MVP voting by the BBWAA weighs team performance alongside individual stats, a nuance that tends to get lost when the debate boils down to raw numbers.
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Geisupo Sokuho+) thread “[MLB] Is Shohei Ohtani’s bid for a 4th straight MVP in trouble? The staggering gap with his rival that U.S. media points to.”
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