Fans of Major League Baseball are blessed right now, because we continue to witness something special. In fact, the most special month of this run just concluded. And, well, we'll get to all of this in a second. First, though, a highlight to help illustrate the matter.
On Friday night, Angels super-duper, two-way star Shohei Ohtani hit a colossal home run. It checked in at 493 feet.
That was Ohtani's 30th home run of the season. He leads the majors in home runs. He also leads the majors in triples, RBI, slugging percentage, OPS, OPS+, total bases and is, unsurprisingly, lapping the field in WAR. The latter is due, obviously, in part to Ohtani's exploits on the mound.
Let's just admire the stats right now.
Ohtani is hitting .310/.396/.674 (188 OPS+) with 15 doubles, five triples, 30 home runs, 67 RBI, 60 runs and 11 stolen bases in 82 games. On the mound, he's 7-3 with a 3.02 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and 127 strikeouts in 95 1/3 innings. He has the lowest hit rate (5.7 hits per nine innings allowed) in the majors and the highest strikeout rate (12.0 K/9) in the AL. In the baseball-reference.com version of WAR, Ohtani sits at 6.7 while Ronald Acuña Jr. (far and away the NL MVP right now) is second at 4.9.
Perhaps the most amazing stat of all: Ohtani leads the majors in games played. He's the only player pulling double duty and he hasn't taken a single day off.
I'm certain that there are some curmudgeons out there who are tired of hearing about Ohtani or think we've been oversaturating the general sports fan public with him, but it would be malpractice to cover him less than we have. If anything, he should be covered more. This is the best of the three seasons he's had as a two-way player and he's getting better.
In fact, it could be argued he just finished with the best month an individual player has ever had in Major League Baseball. Ah, yes, here come the naysayers to claim hyperbole.
I've got ammo, though.
Among players with a full month (100 plate appearances), here are the highest OPS ever in June.
1. Babe Ruth, 1.540, 1929
2. Babe Ruth, 1.537, 1921
3. Lou Gehrig, 1.501, 1930
4. Babe Ruth, 1.477, 1930
5. Lou Gehrig, 1.470, 1936
6. Rogers Hornsby, 1.464, 1925
7. Shohei Ohtani, 1.444, 2023
Ohtani hit 15 homers in the month. The only players ever to hit more home runs in June were Sammy Sosa (20, 1998) and Kyle Schwarber (16, 2021). Babe Ruth (1930), Pedro Guerrero (1985), Jim Thome (2004), Bob Johnson (1934) and Roger Maris (1961) also hit 15.
If we expanded the search to every month, here are the players with at least a 1.440 OPS in at least 100 plate appearances:
- April (includes March, too): Larry Walker (1.449, 1997)
- May: Todd Helton (1.588, 2000), Barry Bonds (1.583, 2001), Frank Thomas (1.581, 1994), Ruth (1.547, 1928)
- June: Already listed above
- July: Ruth (1.584, July), Jason Giambi (1.498, 2005), Joe DiMaggio (1.487, 1937), Ted Williams (1.472, 1957), Chipper Jones (1.470, 1999), Ruth (1.441, 1924)
- August: Bonds (1.615, 2004), Bonds (1.581, 2002), Ruth (1.507, 1921), Hornsby (1.466, 1924)
- September (includes October, too): Bonds (1.685, 2001), Hank Greenberg (1.504, 1940), Richard Hidalgo (1.486, 2000)
The most recent in any month to have an OPS on level with what Ohtani just did was Jason Giambi in July 2005.
It's only OPS, but Ohtani is in exclusive company: his June was one of 25 months in history in such rarefied air.
The separation point here is easy. Ohtani is the only player on this list who was a pitcher. Yes, I'm aware that Babe Ruth was a two-way star for a bit of his career, but it wasn't long and none of the Ruth months here came while he was a full-time pitcher. He started one game in June 1921 and otherwise that was it for any of our relevant stats.
Ohtani in the month of June started five games. He was 2-2 with a 3.26 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 30 1/3 innings. The league average ERA this season is 4.27, so Ohtani provided the Angels with five starts of just about a whole run better than league average on the mound and he did so while producing one of the best offensive months we've ever seen.
As we've heard plenty of times by now, there are lies, damn lies and statistics. They could be bent to prove a point and I'm sure there's someone out there working far too hard to prove that Shohei Ohtani did not, in fact, have the best month a baseball player has ever had.
In just looking at the offensive production, via OPS, teamed with great work on the mound, though, there's a pretty great case that Shohei Ohtani just had the best calendar month a Major League Baseball player has ever had.
