Standing ovations usually come at the end of a performance, but all should rise for the show that figures to go on for years to come.
Baseball can only thank its lucky superstars that Shohei Ohtani jumped to the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2024 season, leaving Major League Baseball with its two biggest attractions in separate leagues.
The free-agency move that put Shohei Ohtani in the National League means baseball fans—from passionate to fringe observers—can watch Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees and Ohtani in a public battle for something other than the American League (AL) titles and individual achievements.
Ohtani went to the Dodgers after the 2023 season, and the two are seemingly on course to challenge each other for World Series championships—as they did last season when the Dodgers topped the Yankees in five games—and All-Star Game honors.
The barstool babble and fodder for radio sports talk show hosts is already filling airwaves over who’s the better hitter between the reigning MVPs of both leagues.
Ohtani and Judge are the biggest offensive attractions in the sport—despite what the Seattle Mariners’ Cal Raleigh is doing by leading the major leagues in home runs with 32.
The fans have spoken this year, voting the Judge–Ohtani duo as the first two players selected for the July 15 All-Star Game at Truist Park in Atlanta. But the stats tell a variety of stories, depending on the presenter.
There’s always room for debate.
Ohtani is a three-time MVP—two in the AL—who grabbed the honor in the National League (NL) in 2024 with baseball’s first 50-homer, 50-stolen base season.
Judge is a two-time MVP masher who was off to a record-setting season this year before slowing down in recent weeks. He still has 28 longballs and 63 RBIs through Friday’s action.
The Bronx star, who has posted a 10.8 WAR (wins above replacement) rating in two of the past four seasons, has his OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) at 1,180. His 133 RBIs last season were a career best, and he has three HR crowns in his career, two of which came with Ohtani in the AL.
Ohtani posted a career high in WAR last season at 9.2, and his OPS was 1,036. His career-best 54 longballs gave him his third home run title, and his speed landed him with 59 stolen bases. He has two HR titles, the second coming last year.
The left-handed hitter smacked his 29th longball of the season at Kansas City on Friday to extend his NL lead in that category. And although an injured Ohtani was less-than productive in the Fall Classic last year when the Dodgers won it all, observers probably wouldn’t mind seeing the same matchup for a second consecutive year.
In fact, the two teams might be on collision course again this season, with both clubs leading their respective divisions.
The disagreements are going to come fast and furious, and the public can expect them from all sources.
“It’s Judge,” Mark Simon of Sports Info Solutions told The Epoch Times in a blunt email transmission when asked which one is the better hitter.
“He’s a more complete hitter than Ohtani. And it’s not just something he’s doing in Yankee Stadium, he’s dominating in every ballpark against every type of pitcher.
“At this point, I’d say it’s not that close,” said Simon, a longtime ESPN researcher.
But it’s no surprise that the sentiment is different on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
“Overall, Ohtani, because he is going to do more for you after he hits the ball. He’s faster than Judge and a better base steeler,” Jason Coskrey, longtime baseball writer for The Japan Times in Tokyo, said in an email.
“Taking out the balls that go over the fence, which I give the advantage to Judge, Ohtani is going to turn more of his singles into doubles than Judge will—even if Judge might hit more outright doubles—and is going to leg out the odd infield hit,” he added.
“Now if you’re putting good players around them, then Judge might be the bigger threat, because he is simply a bigger threat to knock the ball out of the park and drive in runners.”
Coskrey then took his argument for Ohtani to the next level.
“I lean Ohtani because he gives me more options. But Judge is the best power bat in baseball right now, I think,” Coskrey wrote.
The verbal sparring is just as real on the streets among those with differing opinions on the pair, but all will likely rise in appreciation as these players continue to provide must-see moments through the years. Their numbers will tell us who was the best hitter when their careers are done.
