Shohei Ohtani Joins the 40-40 Club in Grand Style, and He Could Have Company

Whereas Shohei Ohtani hasn’t pitched this yr after present process UCL reconstruction surgical procedure final fall, he has discovered one other space of the sport by which he may excel whereas terrorizing opposing pitchers. The 30-year-old famous person blew previous his earlier profession excessive in stolen bases in late July, and on Friday night time towards the Rays he swiped his fortieth bag of the yr. 5 innings later, he collected his fortieth dwelling run to affix the 40-40 membership in spectacular fashion, when he clobbered a first-pitch, walk-off grand slam. Sadly, Ronald Acuña Jr.’s torn ACL disadvantaged him of an opportunity to observe up final yr’s unprecedented mixture of 41 homers and 73 steals, nevertheless it’s not out of the query we may have one other 40-40 participant this season, specifically José Ramírez, and no less than a pair extra 30-30 ones.

I’ll get to these, however first, it’s Sho time. Previous to this yr, Ohtani had reached 40 homers twice (46 in 2021 and a league-leading 44 final yr) however had stolen simply 20 bases or extra twice (26 in 2021 and 20 final yr). Unburdened by the calls for of pitching this yr, and taking part in for a brand new group with a lot greater aspirations than the Angels, he’s been in a position to face up to extra put on and tear on his legs, has had extra time to check opposing pitchers, and has come to understand the additional dimension he can add to his new group.

“I feel he has purchased into stealing bases, understands the worth of the stolen base, getting 90 toes,” supervisor Dave Roberts advised The Athletic earlier this month. “He’s in a pennant race now. And I don’t suppose he’s been in a pennant race in his big-league profession. So his enhanced focus isn’t a shock to me.”

“I feel now with having much less on his plate from a preparation standpoint and the pitching, extra focus may be placed on it,” first base coach Clayton McCullough advised The Athletic. “His eye for issues has been spectacular”

Based on Statcast, Ohtani’s dash velocity ranks within the 72nd percentile, which is definitely the second-lowest mark of his profession; he’s been as little as the 63rd percentile (2023) and as excessive because the 92nd (in his temporary ’20 marketing campaign), or the ninetieth (’21) when you restrict the comparability to full seasons. It’s clear that he can motor, and never solely has he been prolific for a group that hasn’t had such a base-stealing menace in awhile — Dee Unusual-Gordon was the final Dodger to steal no less than 40 bases (64 in 2014) — he’s been environment friendly, getting caught simply 4 occasions. In truth, the one Wild Card-era Dodger with a better price of success in a season with no less than 30 makes an attempt is Roberts himself, who had a 97.1% success price (33 steals, one caught) in 2004. General, Ohtani leads the NL in homers and is second in stolen bases. His baserunning (together with developments) has been value 5.7 runs above common, up 3.2 from final yr, his earlier profession excessive, and fifth within the majors.

As for his huge night time on Friday, Ohtani’s stolen base got here after he legged out an infield single within the fourth inning. Catcher Rob Brantly dropped the pitch and didn’t even get off a throw. The homer adopted a stroll to pinch-hitter Max Muncy to load the bases; needing to throw a strike, Colin Poche left a slider in Ohtani’s wheelhouse.

Not solely did that make Ohtani simply the sixth participant in main league historical past to achieve 40 homers and 40 steals in a season, however he additionally joined the membership quicker than anybody by a rustic mile:

Did I point out it’s nonetheless August? Ohtani has ample time to ascertain the 45-45 membership, and he’s even on tempo to be the founding father of the 50-50 membership. Towards that finish, I requested Dan Szymborski to whip up some ZiPS-flavored odds that he attains these mixtures:

Ohtani, who added one other dwelling run on Saturday night time, is extra possible than to not attain 45 homers and 45 steals. He has almost a coin-toss likelihood at becoming a member of Aaron Choose within the 50-homer membership (Choose has simply six steals, in case you’re questioning), and higher than a one-in-four likelihood of reaching that and 50 steals.

Two factors are value allowing for. As Dan jogged my memory upon delivering these projections, the chances of reaching the mix are a bit greater than simply multiplying the 2 numbers collectively since there’s some correlation. Whereas dwelling runs don’t immediately create stolen base alternatives, if Ohtani is hitting homers, he’s most likely taking part in higher, hitting extra singles and doubles as properly (and going through extra hittable pitchers). That’s sufficient to offset the extent to which hitting a homer deprives a participant of an opportunity to achieve base and steal. Second, these odds don’t account for human nature within the type of the likelihood {that a} participant nearing the stolen base milestone may begin attempting to steal extra ceaselessly, an motion that’s rather more inside his management than, say, a sudden try and hit extra homers (which normally doesn’t finish properly).

Final yr, 4 gamers mixed no less than 30 homers with 30 steals for simply the fourth time in historical past (1987, ’97, and 2011 have been the others), and 4 others gave the mix a run for the cash, ending with no less than 25 homers and 25 steals. It’s not exhausting to know why. The brand new guidelines put in place for 2023 that favor stolen bases — specifically the pitch clock, the restrict on pickoff throws, and the marginally bigger bases — pushed the per-team, per-game price to 0.72, the very best it had been since 1997, that in a season that produced the fifth-highest dwelling run price of all time (1.21 per group per recreation). Stolen bases are as much as 0.73 per group per recreation this yr, and whereas the house run price has fallen to 1.12, that’s nonetheless the Tenth-highest mark of all time. Observe that from amongst these seasons with 4 30-30 members, 1987 marked the primary time the house run price broke 1.0 (1.06, up 0.15 from the earlier yr), whereas ’97 and 2011 each had localized highs for stolen bases (0.73 and 0.67, respectively), mixed with fairly excessive dwelling run charges.

Acuña isn’t the one one whose accidents have prevented one other shot at a cool combo. The identical is true for one in all final yr’s 30-30 members, Julio Rodríguez (whose play has additionally fallen off), and near-misses Fernando Tatis Jr., Kyle Tucker, and Trea Turner, and whereas Corbin Carroll has been wholesome (although we’ve all questioned about his shoulder), he simply hasn’t been in a position to muster the identical magic.

Nonetheless, one different participant has already reached each plateaus earlier than the top of August: Ramírez, who hit his thirtieth dwelling run within the second recreation of a doubleheader towards the Diamondbacks on August 7 (he’s added three since), and stole his thirtieth base towards the Yankees on Thursday (he’s added two since). That is his second time reaching the 2 thresholds in the identical season. He hit 39 homers and stole 34 bases in 2018, setting profession highs in each classes; he additionally got here shut in ’21 (36 homers, 27 steals) and final yr (24 homers, 28 steals).

Ramírez has benefitted from distinctive effectivity, as he’s been caught simply 4 occasions, and he really has an inexpensive likelihood of becoming a member of the 40-40 membership. Listed below are his ZiPS odds for that, in addition to these for the potential 30-30 members:

Witt and Lindor each reached 30-30 final yr, as did Acuña and Rodríguez, and each are proper within the thick of MVP races of their respective leagues, although most likely underdogs. Witt’s 9.0 WAR trails solely Choose’s 9.6. The shortstop, who’s in his age-24 season, is vying to turn into the youngest participant to realize two 30-30 seasons; Acuña was in his age-25 season when he did it for a second time final yr.

Lindor has overtaken Ohtani for the NL WAR lead, 6.5 to six.2. As I famous simply final week in relation to the shortstop’s MVP probabilities, his low batting common is more likely to work towards him even in an age the place we all know that the stat isn’t the be-all and end-all of manufacturing. Ohtani’s 2021 season is the one one of many previous 51 years the place a hitter received the award with a batting common beneath .280, due to his 46 homers and excellence on the mound. As this August dawned, Ohtani held a .309 to .254 edge on Lindor in batting common, and a 5.6 to five.0 edge in WAR, however these days issues have favored the switch-hitting Met, and the 2 at the moment are simply 23 factors aside in common, .292 to .269.

In the meantime, on Wednesday, De La Cruz stole his sixtieth base, making him the youngest participant (and simply the fifth general) to mix no less than 20 homers (he has 22) with 60 steals inside a really electrifying group:

With 5 weeks remaining within the common season, De La Cruz nonetheless has a good shot at 30 homers. The Reds have 31 video games remaining, and in response to Baseball Reference, he’s had a number of overlapping spans this yr by which he’s hit eight or 9 homers, beginning with one which ran from Opening Day (March 28) to Could 3.

As for Chisholm and Doyle, neither has robust probabilities of attending to 30-30, however sufficient of the season stays — 31 video games for every of their groups — that it’s not fully out of the query. Chisholm not solely homered 10 occasions in a 31-game stretch in 2022 with the Marlins (Could 8 to June 22), he had a sequence of equally productive overlapping spans this yr, beginning with one which started on July 3 and ended with the second recreation of a doubleheader on August 10, and was highlighted by back-to-back two-homer video games on July 29 and 30, his second and third after being traded from the Marlins to the Yankees. He simply returned from a light UCL sprain in his left elbow, and whereas he has but to homer and even barrel a ball since coming again, he does have 5 hard-hit balls (95 mph or greater) in three video games. Doyle had a number of stretches the place he’s has hit as many as 12 homers over a 31-game span this yr, beginning with one which started on June 17 and ended on July 24. It most likely doesn’t damage that he performs in Colorado, although this yr he’s hit 11 of his 21 homers on the highway.

Due to his contract, his market, and the unprecedented nature of his pursuit, Ohtani’s chase will most likely stay the one which captures our consideration — and hey, when you are able to do it like he did on Friday night time, that spotlight is well-earned. However notably as a result of a few of them they might have an effect on the MVP races, and maybe even give us the most important bumper crop of 30-30 gamers, all of those pursuits are value maintaining a tally of as we head into the house stretch.