After winning the Hank Aaron Award with the Angels in 2023 as the best offensive player in the American League, Shohei Ohtani also won the National League Hank Aaron Award in 2024 in his first year with the Dodgers.
Ohtani is the first player to win the Aaron Award in both leagues. If he wins the National League MVP next week, he will be the second MVP in both leagues, joining Frank Robinson (1961 with the Reds, 1966 with the Orioles).
Ohtani and AL winner Aaron Judge are the 14th and 15th players to win multiple Aaron Awards, presented since 1999, honoring the 25th anniversary of Aaron’s MLB home run record.
Determining the best offensive player in the National League has been the easiest task this year, as Ohtani has spent all his time as a designated hitter while leading the circuit in the FanGraphs and Baseball Reference versions of Wins Above Replacement.
Ohtani hit .310/.390/.646 and was the first 50-50 player in baseball history, finishing with 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases. He led the National League in home runs, RBI (130), runs scored (134), on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS (1.036), OPS+ (190), wRC+ (181), hits extra-base (99). , and total goals (411), the latter being the first major league player with 400 total goals since 2001.
Ohtani is only the second Dodger to win the Hank Aaron Award, joining Matt Kemp in 2011.
Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman was also one of 10 finalists for the Hank Aaron Award, announced October 7.
The Aaron Award winners were announced during the All-MLB Awards ceremony in Las Vegas. Ohtani also won the Edgar Martínez Award as baseball’s top designated hitter, the fourth consecutive year he has won the award. And he was also named a first-team All-MLB designated hitter.
