The Los Angeles Dodgers are once again among the best teams in Major League Baseball. They are 23-14 to start the 2026 season, lead the National League West by a game over the San Diego Padres, and have the third best record in the senior circuit.
To nobody’s surprise, two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani is at the center of it all. He has won back-to-back National League MVP awards and is now a two-time World Series champion. There is certainly reason to expect him to earn yet another MVP.
However, his pitching has been the most impressive this year. The right-hander is 2-2 with a 0.97 ERA in six starts and is averaging 10.2 strikeouts per nine innings. Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report predicts that Ohtani will win his first Cy Young award, but miss out on his third straight NL MVP.
“Through six starts—all quality starts—Ohtani has gone 37.0 innings with an MLB-best 0.97 ERA and an MLB-best 0.81 WHIP,” Rymer wrote. “He did show a bit of mortality on Tuesday night in allowing a pair of solo home runs to the Astros, but he has been just about flawless on the mound.
“On the anti-MVP side of things, though, Ohtani has just an .814 OPS after ending each of the previous three seasons north of 1.000. Though his hard-hit percentage (48.4) is still well above the league average, it is nowhere close to where it has been in recent years (closer to 60). ”
Could Ohtani Miss MVP Award This Season
Ohtani is hitting just .248/.389/.442 with six home runs and 15 RBI this season. There certainly is some cause for concern as far as winning another MVP. Atlanta Braves star first baseman Matt Olson has been hitting much better than Ohtani as of late, so he might be the early favorite to win it.
It would certainly be interesting to see somebody else win it, especially if Ohtani were to win his first Cy Young. But the two-way star hasn’t been hitting the same way he was last season. There’s still a lot of time for him to figure things out, but he hasn’t been the same Ohtani at the plate that he previously was, and that could cost him a chance to win another MVP.
Ohtani could always get hot at any moment though, which would put him right back in the mix for the award and potentially even catapult him back to the top of the race by the end of the season.
Ohtani’s Cy Young Case
Strangely, it’s Ohtani’s pitching that has been the story of his season so far. He always has had the potential to be an ace, but usually it’s both that and his hitting in tandem that get him the awards.
He hadn’t pitched consistently for a while until last season, when he was fully recovered from his Tommy John surgery. He didn’t pitch at all in 2024, but won the award based on his offense.
But there is a strong case to be made for the Cy Young award. He has the best ERA in the league, and it isn’t even particularly close. He also has a 0.81 WHIP and has held opposing hitters to a .160 average through his first six starts.
New York Mets starter Clay Holmes is the closest to Ohtani in the National League, having posted a 1.69 ERA through seven starts, so it will be interesting to see if Ohtani can keep this up.
Dodgers Shohei Ohtani Gets Cy Young Prediction, But With a Catch