Shohei Ohtani is a Japanese professional baseball player known for his exceptional two-way abilities as both a pitcher and hitter, a rarity in modern baseball. Born on July 5, 1994, in Oshu, Japan, Ohtani began his professional career in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, where he was a five-time All-Star and Pacific League MVP before moving to Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2018 with the Los Angeles Angels. Ohtani quickly made a significant impact in MLB, earning the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year award in 2018 by excelling as both a pitcher and hitter. His 2021 season was historic: he hit 46 home runs and struck out 156 batters, winning his first AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) award and receiving the Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award for his unprecedented two-way performance. He followed this with a strong 2022 season, becoming the first modern-era player to qualify for both hitting and pitching leaderboards in the same year. In 2023, Ohtani won his second unanimous AL MVP after leading the league with 44 home runs and recording 10 pitching wins, becoming the first Japanese-born player to win a league home run title and the first to win multiple unanimous MVPs. After the 2023 season, he signed a record-breaking 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2024, while recovering from a second elbow injury that prevented him from pitching, Ohtani played as a designated hitter (DH) for the Dodgers. That year, he became the first MLB player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season, earning his third MVP award and helping lead the Dodgers to a World Series championship—the first postseason title of his career. He also earned the National League Championship Series (NLCS) MVP for an extraordinary performance featuring three home runs and 10 strikeouts as a pitcher[1][2][3][4][5][6].