ESPN’s Buster Olney named Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani as MLB’s “biggest winner” in the month of May.
“Shohei Ohtani had an incredible month after a slow start to May,” Olney wrote. “He went hitless in the first four games, and a lot of the media discussion about him was whether he could handle a simultaneous pitching and hitting load — and what we’ve heard from other Dodgers is that Ohtani is very aware of what is being said about him.
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“In the last three weeks of May, he raked, with nine multihit games among the past 22… And he dominated in his four starts on the mound — maybe not to the level of a Misiorowski or Cristopher Sanchez, but for a guy starting once a week, he fared well: three runs over 25 innings, keeping his ERA under 1.00.
“We can never take for granted what Ohtani is doing, and what he’s doing in 2026 is staying in the Cy Young race and again setting himself up for a unanimous MVP vote. We can never take for granted what Ohtani is doing, and what he’s doing in 2026 is staying in the Cy Young race and again setting himself up for a unanimous MVP vote.”
After his slow start, Ohtani immediately began contributing again with two runs in his next two games and an RBI in each. He batted .289 over the course of the month, including his dry spell for the first few games, and posted an OPS just shy of .900 in May.
Ohtani was just as impressive on the mound, posting a 1.05 ERA through his four starts to bring his season ERA up to 0.82. He struck out 27 batters in 25 innings pitched, and allowed just three runs during that stretch.
At this point of the season, it’s almost a certainty that Ohtani will take home his fourth consecutive MVP award, tying Barry Bonds’ record of four straight from 2001-04.
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The bigger question, though, is whether or not he can bring home the Cy Young award. As Olney stated, Ohtani has plenty of competition in this year’s race, and isn’t the frontrunner despite his staggering sub-1.00 ERA.
Both Sanchez and Misiorowski are ahead of Ohtani in terms of betting odds, and Paul Skenes also sits in front of top the Dodgers’ unicorn despite an average start to the season.
Ohtani will have to put together his best pitching season to date in order to compete with the trio standing in his way, and will do everything can as he tries to help the Dodgers to their third consecutive World Series.
Do you think Shohei Ohtani will continue to improve in June?
