After having an explosive first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani on Thursday was crowned the National League MVP. This marked the third time in his career that he has won this award. On all three occasions, he was the unanimous winner.
Following his win in 2023, Ohtani penned down a 10-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers. This made him the highest paid player in the league.
Such a huge contract brought huge spotlight on him. After a slow start to his career as a Dodger, the two-way Japanese star exploded to life.
He founded the 50-50 club this year as he became the first player to record fifty home runs and fifty stolen bases. The 30-year-old finished the regular season with 54 home runs and 59 RBI while batting with an average of .310.
This performance saw him being named a Silver Slugger and won the Edgar Martinez Outstanding DH and the NL Hank Aaron Award. These triumphs made him a heavy favorite to win the NL MVP Award.
UNANIMOUS.
Shohei Ohtani is your 2024 NATIONAL LEAGUE MVP! pic.twitter.com/fsnhHuEQtp
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) November 21, 2024
He would receive all 30 first-place votes to claim this honor. New York Mets’ Francisco Lindor finished as the runner-up with 23 second-place votes while Arizona Diamondbacks’ Ketel Marte came third in the rankings.
Meanwhile, Aaron Judge was named the American League MVP after having an incredible season as well. The unanimous victory of these two means that for a second year running, the two league MVPs are unanimous winners.
Walker Buehler sends one-word reaction to Shohei Ohtani winning 2024 NL MVP award
Shohei Ohtani‘s third MVP triumph brought out several reactions on social media. A huge number of them jumped on social media to congratulate the Japanese international. One of them to react to his win was Walker Buehler, who shared a one-word reaction to it.
The right-handed pitcher played an important role in the Dodgers’ World Series triumph. His dominant performance in Game 3 helped his team to take a 3-0 lead and later went on to earn a huge save as he closed out Game 5 to win the World Series.
Reacting to Ohtani’s NL MVP victory, he reposted the post of the Dodgers and wrote “Duh“. He would provide no further explanation regarding this, thus leaving the fans amused by his message.
Duh https://t.co/oMzij9ahw5
— Walker Buehler (@buehlersdayoff) November 22, 2024
He though was not the only one to have a funny reaction. Another Dodgers pitcher Jack Flaherty also reacted to this. The 29-year-old reposted Buehler’s post and wrote, “What he said.”
What he said https://t.co/fZKMNCpnHS
— Jack Flaherty (@jflare_) November 22, 2024
The pitching duo of Buehler and Flaherty are now looking ahead to their futures. The two stars are now free agents and are exploring their options for the 2025 season. Dodgers fans would be hoping that the team re-signs both of them as they look to build upon a strong rotation with Ohtani likely to pitch again next year.
