Shohei Ohtani might be the best player of his generation in recent baseball memory, but like any other player, there are flaws to his immediate legacy.
Years of playing for the Los Angeles Angels left Ohtani without a playoff berth. Ohtani finally played in October for the first time last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers and won the World Series, though he certainly didn’t lead the way to victory.
His struggles have continued this October. Through Game 3 of the NLCS, he had hit just .147 (5-for-40) with 15 strikeouts, two home runs and six RBIs this postseason. The Dodgers are back in the NLCS for the second consecutive year and a potential fifth trip to the World Series since 2017. The roster has enough talent to finish the series against the Milwaukee Brewers, though Los Angeles needs Ohtani to find his form to repeat as world champions.
Legacies with top stars around the game are studied under a microscope these days. Take New York Yankees star Aaron Judge for example. He could be on his way to his third MVP award in four seasons after another monster campaign with an OPS over 1.000 and upwards of 50 home runs again. Judge has the same flaw in postseason shortcomings, both individually as a team. Judge still hasn’t delivered the first championship for the Yankees since 2009 and entered this season as a career .211 hitter in the postseason.
Judge did have a crucial Game 3 home run in the ALDS against the Toronto Blue Jays and hit .500 with a 1.273 OPS before another premature New York exit. That’s a solid seven-game sample size, though that didn’t do much to change the narrative about Judge in October.
Here’s the point: Judge and Ohtani are the two best players in the sport. They have differing sample sizes, but if there’s going to be narrative about playoff struggles for Judge, Ohtani must face the same pressure. Ohtani hit just .200 through his first 24 postseason games and will have to fight like Judge to rewrite his own October chapter.
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