Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani both are putting together incredible seasons. But which player’s 2024 will go down as the most historic campaign?
This is a no-wrong-answers sort of situation, like picking between pizza or tacos. Nonetheless, we have gathered together nine MLB.com writers here with the purpose of making them pick.
On one hand, you have Judge’s pursuit of his own American League record of 62 home runs, set just two years ago. On the other hand, you have Ohtani’s charge toward MLB’s first 50-50 season. Both superstars are putting up spectacular overall numbers, too, but these are the sorts of headline accomplishments that baseball fans could be talking about for many years to come.
Jason Catania, supervising editor, breaking news
Ohtani, as usual for him, is doing something we’ve literally NEVER seen before by chasing the first 50-homer, 50-steal season in MLB history. Even when he wasn’t able to pitch this year, the international superstar still found a way to be a ridiculous two-way threat. Add in the fact that it’s coming in his first year with the Dodgers after signing a historic 10-year, $700 million contract, and well, Ohtani is as must-watch and as most-memorable as it gets.
Apologies to Judge, who is the sport’s premier offensive force right now, but the nightly buzz for each Ohtani homer OR stolen base will wind up being more thrilling and dramatic — and fun! — down the stretch than the Yankees captain’s repeat pursuit of 60-plus homers. And if Ohtani actually goes 50-50, we’ll look back on 2024 with that as the standout individual achievement.
Will Leitch, national columnist
One of my favorite subplots of this season has been all the people learning, “wait … Shohei Ohtani is fast, too?” He has always been fast, of course, but this year, freed up from pitching (for now) and able to truly dig into how much easier it is to steal bases than it was when he first came in the league, he’s running like crazy. And that’s great. It’s amazing, actually.
But. Shohei is excelling at something that, we can all agree, has gotten easier in the last few years. You know what hasn’t gotten easier? Hitting! It’s ridiculously hard! Have you seen what these pitchers are throwing? And yet Aaron Judge is (likely) going to hit 60 homers (again) while also leading the Majors in RBIs, walks, slugging, on-base percentage and (obviously) OPS. Only one player in the past 80 years has had a better OPS+ — essentially, how much better you are compared to every other hitter in baseball — than Judge is going to have this year: Barry Bonds (who, uh, did it four times). If I’m mentioning your name in the same sentence as Bonds, you are doing something otherworldly.
