ROY Ohtani + MVP Ohtani? '23 Ohtani is best of both

By David Adler | July 23, 2023

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The version of Shohei Ohtani that won the 2018 AL Rookie of the Year was good. The Ohtani who won the 2021 AL MVP was great. But 2023 Shohei Ohtani? He's the best of both.

The current version of Ohtani combines the top home run-hitting qualities of each previous award-winning version. Ohtani has brought back the signature left-center-field swing that put him on the map as a rookie and coupled it with the monster pull power that drove him to his 46-homer season two years ago.

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Ohtani's 2023 home run spray chart looks like a combination of his 2018 home run spray chart with his 2021 home run spray chart. So it's no surprise that this is his best power-hitting season yet.

First: Here are Ohtani's home run locations for 2018 and 2021.

As a rookie in 2018, the bullseye was in left-center field -- picture Ohtani hitting home runs into the rocky outcropping behind the wall at Angel Stadium, which he's done so many times.

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In his MVP 2021 season, though, Ohtani's power was less about left-center and a lot more about pulling the ball out of the park.

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Now: Here's where Shohei is hitting his home runs in 2023. He has both the hotspot in left-center and the hotspot in deep right field.

Essentially, if you put together Ohtani's home run heatmaps from 2018 and 2021, you get his home run heatmap from 2023. Here's what that looks like.

The big clusters of homers are in the same two regions of the field.

So let's look at these two key types of Ohtani home runs.

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1) Left-center

Ohtani loves to drive the ball to straightaway center, and when he does, the ball will tail in the classic lefty trajectory and often land just to the opposite side of the field.

Entering Saturday, Ohtani had hit 17 home runs to straightaway center this season -- that's the middle third of the field, using Statcast's pull/straightaway/oppo classifications -- which is by far the most of any hitter.

Most straightaway HR, 2023

Ohtani peppers that part of the field, just like he did in 2018, when he led MLB hitters with a .989 slugging percentage to straightaway center. He leads the league in 2023, too, slugging an even 1.000 on his straightaway contact.

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2) Pull side

Ohtani isn't the same type of extreme pull slugger as someone like Mookie Betts (21 pulled home runs) or Nolan Arenado (18 pulled home runs). He's pulled "only" 14 of his 35 homers.

But he does have elite pull power. And when Ohtani turns on a ball and taps into that pull power, he really crushes it.

Ohtani showed that in 2021, when the majority of his home runs went out to right field -- way out -- and he's showing it again in 2023.

Ohtani's 14 pulled home runs have averaged 109.2 mph and 425 feet -- the hardest and longest pulled home runs in the Majors.

Highest avg. exit velocity on pulled HR, 2023
Min. 10 pulled HR

Longest avg. distance on pulled HR, 2023
Min. 10 pulled HR

That includes four pulled homers of 115-plus mph, and four hit 450-plus feet -- among them his season-high 117.1 mph home run off Zack Greinke on June 18, and the monster 493-foot home run he hit on June 30 at Angel Stadium, the longest homer in MLB this season.

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The danger of Ohtani at the plate in 2023 is that no matter where you make your pitch, he can stay on it and drive it out to center; and if you miss in his wheelhouse, it'll be long gone to right. Ohtani's become the best versions of himself.

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