The first two seasons of Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year deal with the Dodgers have gone swimmingly, with the team winning the World Series twice, Ohtani winning National League MVP twice, and now taking home
another Associated Press male athlete of the year award.
Associated Press announced the 2025 award on Tuesday, with Ohtani receiving 29 of 47 votes from AP staffers and members. Pole vaulter Armand Duplantis was second with five votes, and No. 1-ranked tennis player Carlos Alcaraz got four votes. To give an idea of the competition, Duplantis per Associated Press “won his third consecutive world title and has set the world record 14 times, including four times in 2025.”
Ohtani had another dynamic season offensively for the Dodgers, hitting .282/.392/.622 with 55 home runs, 20 stolen bases, and set a modern Dodgers record by scoring 146 runs. He led the NL in several categories, including total bases, runs scored, OPS+, wRC, slugging percentage, and OPS. But Ohtani also made his return to the mound and posted a 2.87 ERA and 2.49 xERA in 14 starts, with 62 strikeouts against only nine walks in 47 innings.
His signature game of 2025 was Game 4 of the National League Championship Series against the Brewers, with 10 strikeouts in six scoreless innings on the mound and three home runs at the plate in the series-clinching game, earning NLCS MVP honors in the process.
Ohtani won the AP male athlete of the year award in 2021 and 2023 with the Angels, and now 2024-25 with the Dodgers. His four awards tie Tiger Woods (1997, 1999-2000, 2006), Lance Armstrong (2002-05), and LeBron James (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020) for most in the awards history, dating back to 1931.
Armstrong is the only person to win the award four years in a row, while Ohtani’s current streak is tied with Michael Jordan (1991-93) for second-longest.
Ohtani is one of four Dodgers to win AP male athlete of the year, along with Maury Wills (1962), Sandy Koufax (1963 and 1965), and Orel Hershiser. Ohtani and Koufax are the only baseball players to win the award multiple times.
