The 2025 awards have come and gone, and Shohei Ohtani continued to pile up more hardware for his mantel. Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Will Smith were other Dodgers also honored for their efforts this season.
Ohtani has been a Dodger for two seasons, and has won the National League MVP both times, unanimously. His award last week made Ohtani the second Dodger to win multiple MVPs, now one behind catcher Roy Campanella. Ohtani joined Roger Maris (1960-61 with the New York Yankees) as the only players to win MVP in their first two seasons with a new team.
With four career MVP awards, Ohtani is second only to Barry Bonds’ seven for most in MLB history.
“We can just go ahead and keep giving it to him however many years, the rest of his contract, until his done pitching. Then somebody may have a chance,” Mookie Betts said Friday on MLB Network. “If he’s still pitching, man, we can just keep giving it to him.”
That wasn’t all for Ohtani, who won the Edgar Martínez Award as the best designated hitter for the fifth year in a row. The best DH award has been around since 1973, but was named for Martínez in 2004. Ohtani’s five such awards match Martínez’s career total. David Ortiz has the most Martínez awards, with eight.
Ohtani also won the National League Hank Aaron Award as the best offensive player in his league, the third such award in a row. The Aaron award has been around since 1999, and the only other Dodger to win it besides Ohtani was Matt Kemp in 2011.
Ohtani’s three Aaron awards are tied with Aaron Judge and Barry Bonds for second-most, one behind Alex Rodríguez.
All-MLB teams
Ohtani and Yamamoto were named first-team All-MLB this season, and Smith was the second-team All-MLB catcher. Ohtani has been an All-MLB designated hitter five years in a row, including four first-team honors and second-team in 2022. In addition, Ohtani was an all-MLB starting pitcher from 2021-23 with the Angels, including first-team in 2022 and 2023.
After pitching 67 1/3 innings in the regular season and postseason combined after returning from a second Tommy John surgery in 2025, Ohtani said on the BBWAA conference call after winning MVP looked forward to a full season of pitching in 2026. From Fabian Ardaya in The Athletic:
“I do plan on being able to pitch off mound from the beginning of the season,” he said. “The biggest thing is to be able to stay healthy throughout the season and hopefully be able to start and end the season on the mound.”
Yamamoto was the third Dodgers pitcher to be named first-team All-MLB, along with Walker Buehler and Max Scherzer in 2021. All-MLB awards have been around since 2019.
This was the second All-MLB honor for Smith, who earned second-team honors in 2022.
Other awards
Yamamoto finished third in NL Cy Young voting, with Paul Skenes getting all 30 first-place votes and Cristopher Sánchez garnering all 30 second-place votes. It’s the highest finish for a Dodger since 2022. Yamamoto was named on 29 of 30 ballots, with 16 third-place votes, 11 fourth-place votes, and two fifth-place votes.
Ohtani captured his fourth Silver Slugger Award as the best-hitting DH in the league. Will Smith had a case for best-hitting NL catcher but lost out in the voting to Hunter Goodman of the Rockies. Ohtani is the fifth Dodger to capture a Silver Slugger in consecutive seasons, joining Dusty Baker (1980-81), Mike Piazza (1993-97), Corey Seager (2016-17), and Mookie Betts (2022-24).
Jack Dreyer finished ninth in NL Rookie of the Year voting, earning one third-place vote and one fifth-place vote.
For the first time in his 10 years at the helm of the Dodgers, Dave Roberts did not receive any votes (each ballot is three deep) for Manager of the Year.
Mookie Betts won the 2025 Roberto Clemente Award for his philanthropic work, which was awarded during the World Series. He also won a Fielding Bible Award as the best defensive shortstop in baseball. He was among the top three for an NL Gold Glove Award at the position, with Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn taking home that honor.
