​Recounting everything Shohei Ohtani has achieved since arriving in Major League Baseball feels almost ridiculous to put into words: two World Series rings, four MVP trophies, and season after season that would have been unthinkable in a world that didn’t feature him. Reaching 300 career home runs, in particular, now feels almost quaint given the scope of his résumé. That’s not to diminish the milestone’s significance, though.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Dodgers star added the 300th long ball of his MLB career, launching it off Rockies starter Michael Lorenzen in the bottom of the first inning. Ohtani became the 170th player in MLB history to join the 300-homer club, and he did so just after teammate Mookie Betts reached the same plateau. One could probably guess how many other players in that exclusive group have also logged 750 career strikeouts as pitchers.
Ohtani reached 300 homers in his ninth MLB season, even though only 47 of those blasts came in his first three campaigns. From 2021 through 2025, he averaged 46.6 home runs per season, a span that included the first 50-homer, 50-stolen-base season in MLB history in 2024. That period also saw him win four MVP awards, a total that trails only Barry Bonds in the modern era.
This season is shaping up as another historic chapter, with Ohtani widely favored to win NL MVP honors for a third consecutive year and a dark-horse candidate for his first Cy Young Award. The memory of his slower, less heralded beginnings feels distant now. He has evolved into a singular, global superstar in a way no other player has, with a résumé that would have sounded fantastical if imagined as a to-do list in 2018.
Having just turned 32 this past Sunday, Ohtani shows few signs of slowing down. His $700 million contract—a windfall that once stunned baseball—has become arguably the most valuable document in sports, as the Dodgers’ revenue-generating prowess and high-profile status have even drawn mentions in MLB’s public materials advocating for a salary-cap framework. In Japan, he is a national hero whose celebrity eclipses anything seen here in the United States.
All of this serves to underscore that we are witnessing one of the most impactful careers in MLB history. The long-term effects of Shohei Ohtani’s influence will take years to fully understand, but for now, he still has plenty of homers to hit and records to chase. His story remains ongoing, and the next chapters promise to be just as compelling as the ones that preceded them.