Shohei Ohtani’s latest flirtation with absurd history deserves reminder he’ll pitch too soon

The season that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani is putting together is absolutely ridiculous.

Over the first few years of Ohtani's big-league career, many pondered the question: How would Ohtani perform if he only hit/pitched instead of doing both?

Well, we have our answer:

Ohtani is absolutely incredible when just focusing on one. Besides Aaron Judge's inhumane 2024 season that could see him break the AL home run record, again, Ohtani has been the best hitter in the league. There's even an argument out there that Ohtani is having a better season than Judge, depending on how heavily you weigh stolen bases.

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Shohei Ohtani closing in on first ever 50/50 season in 2024, set to return to mound in 2025

Ohtani is slashing .294/.379/.620 with 43 home runs and 43 stolen bases with about a month to go. He's on pace for 51 home runs and 51 stolen bases, which would make him the only member of the 50 home run, 50 stolen base club in the history of baseball. Both of these numbers would be career highs if he can get to the home run mark.

It's been so incredible to watch. So much so, that most people are forgetting that this is the same player that finished fourth in the AL Cy Young voting two seasons ago. Ohtani is still rehabbing Tommy John surgery.

If you have zero insight on what Tommy John surgery rehab and recovery looks like, let me break it down as best as possible. It's incredibly strict, incredibly strenuous and not something that you can take a day off from.

And Ohtani has gone through his rehab flawlessly. This isn't the first time he's had to go through this rehab, so we should expect to see him come out on the other side of it just the same as he went into it.

It's gut-wrenching for the rest of the league to know that the Dodgers are basically signing a top-10 pitcher in the league to their team next year when they return Ohtani to the rotation.

Make sure you're taking it all in whenever Ohtani takes the field. The likelihood that we see another player who can do the things that he's doing is incredibly unlikely, so treasure it while we can.