Shohei Ohtani smacks down Mets fans as Dodgers star takes home unanimous NL MVP

When MVP candidates were announced on Nov. 11, there were no surprises. Francisco Lindor, Ketel Marte, and Shohei Ohtani were the National League finalists, but there was no question that this was Lindor and Ohtani's race. Marte had a fantastic season for the Diamondbacks and was a deserving All-Star who also won a Silver Slugger, but the conversation brewing during the second half of the season made it clear that it would really only come down to Lindor and Ohtani.

There were pros and cons to both cases. Lindor's numbers were pretty middling through May and didn't earn him an All-Star nod, and then he went on to hit .300 with a .930 OPS throughout the rest of the season, despite a short stint with injury. And he plays a position.

Ohtani put up the best batting average of his MLB career and led the NL in OBP, slugging, and OPS, leading all of baseball in total bases. Oh, and he became the first player to have not only a 50/50 but a 54/54 season. But he doesn't play a position (without toeing the rubber this season), and no pure DH has ever won an MVP award.

Until now. The BBWAA announced their picks for MVP on Thursday night, with Aaron Judge taking home the AL prize for the second time (unanimously, this time) and Ohtani taking it for his third time (and in his second consecutive year).

Shohei Ohtani beats Francisco Lindor for NL MVP after one-of-a-kind season with Dodgers

Ohtani's last two MVPs in 2021 and 2023 were given by unanimous vote, and this year's result was no different. All 30 voting members wrote in Ohtani as their No. 1.

Another unanimous MVP is sort of shocking, especially with Ohtani kept only to DH'ing this season. Even though Ohtani had a better and more consistent season than Lindor at the plate, the fact that he was kept off the mound this year and Lindor played elite defense at shortstop was harped on so much by the national media that it was sort of expected that there would be some amount of dissent within the BBWAA's voting body.

We're likely to be subjected to multiple think pieces about how the BBWAA got it wrong, and Ohtani winning was a miscarriage of justice, but that's all just noise. Only David Ortiz has ever gotten close to winning MVP as a DH, and it's different with Ohtani, because we only saw half of what he's capable of this season. Next year is a whole other story.