Shohei Ohtani is the 2018 American League Rookie of the Year. Halos Heaven’s own Jessica DeLine wrote about Ohtani’s feat shortly after winning the award on Monday afternoon, documenting some fascinating tidbits on how the Japanese superstar took home 25 of 30 first place votes en route to this accomplishment.
To really appreciate what Ohtani accomplished, it’s important to realize just how hard it is to churn out the type of production Ohtani did in so many different ways on the baseball field. To get a better picture of how he pulled this off, let’s break up Ohtani’s season in three parts, starting with his most valuable contribution.