Shohei Ohtani headshot

Shohei Ohtani

Los Angeles Dodgers · DH · through 2026-09-01

Elite season

Why he matters right now

Shohei Ohtani sits 4th in OPS among 50 qualified hitters on this site's tracked board

His .906 OPS ranks him there against the 50 hitters this site follows who have cleared MLB's 3.1-plate-appearances-per-team-game bar. MLB publishes no top-10 OPS board, so this is a position inside a smaller field, said plainly.

Same case as last night, moved numbers: OPS went from .911 to .906 since August 31.

The case in 30 seconds

  • OPS .906 — 4th of 50 qualified hitters on this site's tracked board snapshot batting board — the union of MLB's top-10 hitting boards, then MLB's 3.1 PA per team game rule applied; not the league's full qualified pool
  • 93.2 mph average exit velocity 93.2 mph over 362 batted-ball events — 10th on a 10-deep board of the season's hardest hitters Statcast 2026 hardest-hit leaderboard (single season, top 10 only — not a league-wide ranking)
  • 89 7th in runs at 89, 7th in total bases at 262 on MLB's season leaderboards MLB season leaderboard (the league's own top-10 board of qualified players, not this site's roster)
Contact quality
  • Average exit velocity93.2mph
  • Hard-hit rate51.7%
  • Barrel rate15.7%
  • Max exit velocity114.6mph

This season only, 362 batted-ball events. Ranked 10th on a 10-deep board of the season's hardest hitters — that is a top-of-the-league board, not a league-wide ranking.

The honest caveat

It is still a partial season — 592 plate appearances so far. A rate moves fastest against the strongest arms a schedule has left, and the schedule ahead is not the schedule behind.

What to watch next

Next up: vs St. Louis Cardinals.

Every claim above, with its source (3)
  1. OPS .906 — 4th of 50 qualified hitters on this site's tracked board snapshot batting board — the union of MLB's top-10 hitting boards, then MLB's 3.1 PA per team game rule applied; not the league's full qualified pool
  2. average exit velocity 93.2 mph over 362 batted-ball events — 10th on a 10-deep board of the season's hardest hitters Statcast 2026 hardest-hit leaderboard (single season, top 10 only — not a league-wide ranking)
  3. 7th in runs at 89, 7th in total bases at 262 on MLB's season leaderboards MLB season leaderboard (the league's own top-10 board of qualified players, not this site's roster)

Other cases this page considered and did not lead with: Shohei Ohtani is on the season's hardest-contact board; Shohei Ohtani is top-10 in the majors in runs and total bases.

The evidence

What changed last night

0-for-4 L 8-13 vs St. Louis Cardinals · 2026-09-01 carries a .279 average into today

What to watch next

vs St. Louis Cardinals UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium · 10:10 p.m. ET Facing Quinn Mathews

Shohei Ohtani faces a left-hander in Quinn Mathews. He is hitting .272 with 12 home runs in 173 at-bats against left-handers this season.

Situational splits

SplitABAVGHRRBIOPS
vs RHP 326 .282 1852 .918
vs LHP 173 .272 1228 .882
Home 218 .280 1631 .951
Away 281 .278 1449 .871
Day 131 .290 822 .960
Night 368 .274 2258 .887

2026 season, MLB Stats API. A split with no plate appearances is omitted rather than shown as zeroes.

133G
499AB
139H
.279AVG
30HR
80RBI
11SB
252B
43B
.906OPS

Chasing .400

.279Current AVG
102Consecutive hits needed to reach .400
101-for-100Needed over next 100 AB
1.103Rest-of-season AVG to finish .400 (96-for-87)

Status: IMPOSSIBLE

Milestone tracker

ChaseTargetCurrentPaceNeeded from hereStatus
.350 AVG .350 .279 .279 .770 ROS EXTREME
.380 AVG .380 .279 .279 .966 ROS EXTREME
.400 AVG .400 .279 .279 1.103 ROS IMPOSSIBLE
.406 AVG .406 .279 .279 1.138 ROS IMPOSSIBLE
.466 AVG .466 .279 .279 1.552 ROS IMPOSSIBLE
50 HR 50 30 35 20 in 24 g · 1 per 4.3 AB EXTREME
60 HR 60 30 35 30 in 24 g · 1 per 2.9 AB EXTREME
62 HR 62 30 35 32 in 24 g · 1 per 2.7 AB EXTREME
70 HR 70 30 35 40 in 24 g · 1 per 2.2 AB EXTREME
73 HR 73 30 35 43 in 24 g · 1 per 2.0 AB EXTREME
200 Hits 200 139 163 61 in 24 g EXTREME
225 Hits 225 139 163 86 in 24 g EXTREME
250 Hits 250 139 163 111 in 24 g EXTREME
262 Hits 262 139 163 123 in 24 g EXTREME
50 SB 50 11 13 39 in 24 g EXTREME
80 SB 80 11 13 69 in 24 g EXTREME
100 SB 100 11 13 89 in 24 g EXTREME
130 SB 130 11 13 119 in 24 g EXTREME
50 2B 50 25 29 25 in 24 g EXTREME
60 2B 60 25 29 35 in 24 g EXTREME
67 2B 67 25 29 42 in 24 g EXTREME
20 3B 20 4 5 16 in 24 g EXTREME
25 3B 25 4 5 21 in 24 g EXTREME
36 3B 36 4 5 32 in 24 g EXTREME
125 RBI 125 80 94 45 in 24 g EXTREME
150 RBI 150 80 94 70 in 24 g EXTREME
175 RBI 175 80 94 95 in 24 g EXTREME
191 RBI 191 80 94 111 in 24 g EXTREME

How likely is the finish?

0%finishes with 40+ home runs
0%finishes with 50+ home runs
0%finishes with 60+ home runs

His rate of 50.680 home runs per 1,000 plate appearances is read as 46.790 after regressing toward the league's 30.360 — a leaderboard selects for players who have outperformed, so an unregressed rate projected forward overstates every one of them. That puts the expected finish at 34.0, against a straight team-game pace of 35. Exact beta-binomial over 103 remaining plate appearances, averaged across playing-time scenarios. Calibrated against Retrosheet finishes: within 7 points of observed frequency in every band, and within 2 in three of five. It is a model, not a measurement.

Home run pace vs the benchmark seasons

36730162 gJudge 62Bonds 7330
Cumulative home runs by team game against straight 62 (Judge 2022) and 73 (Bonds 2001) paces. The homepage checkpoint card uses the exact game-by-game Retrosheet curves; these reference lines are straight-line paces.
1.7%of comparable chases reached 40 HR
0.0%of comparable chases reached 50 HR
0.0%of comparable chases reached 60 HR

Empirical: seasons within ±2 HR of his total at the same team-game checkpoint (n=665); median finish 33. Retrosheet.

Recent game log

Derived nightly from the snapshot ledger — each row is the difference between consecutive days; multi-day rows are labeled.

DateOppResultABHHRRBIRSBBBKAVG
2026-09-01 St. Louis Cardinals L 8-13 40 0 01 11 4 .279
2026-08-31 21 0 02 01 0 .281
2026-08-30 Detroit Tigers W 6-1 50 0 00 00 2 .280
2026-08-29 Detroit Tigers L 1-2 41 0 00 00 1 .283
2026-08-28 Detroit Tigers W 2-1 40 0 00 01 2 .283
2026-08-27 Atlanta Braves L 0-1 40 0 00 00 2 .285
2026-08-26 Atlanta Braves L 5-6 52 0 01 10 1 .288
2026-08-25 Atlanta Braves L 3-4 51 0 00 00 1 .287
2026-08-23 Pittsburgh Pirates W 4-0 30 0 01 11 1 .288
2026-08-22 Pittsburgh Pirates W 4-3 30 0 00 02 2 .289

Recent highlights

Lahman + Retrosheet context

How this season fits history

Historical twinBrian Dozier · 2017

86% season-shape match

HR checkpoint-28 vs Barry Bonds

Through 138 team games; 58 in 2001

Chase history

.279.292.30506-0609-01
Batting average, day by day
27323806-0609-01
Projected HR, day by day