It feels trite to say that Shohei Ohtani creates stat lines baseball has never seen before.
The numbers speak for themselves—twin rows of greatness in separate parts of the box score. For a while, it felt redundant to note that he was the first player to accomplish a particular feat since Babe Ruth. Obviously: Who else? But now, with his achievements in a different stratosphere, it feels redundant to note that he is the first player to accomplish something. Better to leave it unsaid. Why imply that it might be even theoretically possible for another player to do this?
So, no, Ohtani’s power is not really captured by the numbers. Those get bigger, better, more impressive—fine. The numbers are straightforward enough. His power is better understood through something more abstract. It’s the expectations he subverts. You think you understand the framework of the modern game. You think you know what is supposed to be possible here. You’re familiar with all the old narratives, the places where one thing should logically follow another, and then—here is Ohtani. Here is something you did not realize you were allowed to imagine.
