Who’s Better: Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani or Yankees’ Aaron Judge?
Who’s the best baseball player on the planet, the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani or New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge?
The question is inherently divisive. Dodger fans are going to pick their guy. Yankee fans are going to pick their guy. In almost any context, it’s a false choice: Both players are great, arguably the two best on the planet.
But if you had to pick one, who are you riding with?
Dodgers Nation polled users on Twitter/X for their choice of who is having the better season, and the answer was overwhelming:
Voters chose Ohtani, 78.6 percent to 21.4 percent.
Both players are doing historic things this year. Besides personal preferences between the player and his team, there’s an easy reason to choose Ohtani’s season as the most impressive: he’s doing things no designated hitter has done before, all while preparing to pitch for the Dodgers in 2025.
With 6.6 Wins Above Replacement per FanGraphs, Ohtani is on track to surpass Jim Rice’s total of 7.7 in 1978 as the most single-season WAR by any player whose primary position is DH.
WAR heavily penalizes players for not adding value to their team by playing defense. That means Ohtani has had to accrue all his WAR by hitting and running the bases, both of which he’s done extremely well.
Ohtani has 44 home runs and 43 stolen bases through Sunday, totals no player has achieved before in MLB history. With two more steals, he’ll match Paul Molitor (1987) for the most stolen bases in a single season by a primary DH.
If Ohtani clinches the first 50-50 season in MLB history, it will give him the kind of round numbers even casual fans can’t ignore. Ohtani is on pace for 52 homers and 51 steals.
If that doesn’t make him the “face of MLB,” it stands to reason that MLB Network will have to wait to see him pitch. (The network chose Judge over Ohtani as the biggest face of baseball.)
For his part, Judge is on the brink of a rare 10-WAR season, per FanGraphs, with an OPS+ more than 100 percent above league average. He already has 51 home runs, 105 runs, and 123 RBIs with a month left in the season. Those are incredible numbers, no buts about it.
Ohtani is simply a more complete baseball talent, even when he isn’t pitching. If Yankee fans don’t know what they’re missing, that is their loss.
Photo Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
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