I know it sounds nuts now, but this Ohtani guy used to be kind of inconsistent. He’d get hurt. He’s slump. In 2020, he hit .190 over the course of an entire season. (A truncated one, but still.) But since then, we’ve had not just excellence but consistent excellence. At least 135 games plated in each of the past five years, with 44 or more home runs in four of those seasons, and a .390 OBP or better and a .620 SLG or better in each of the past three. This is just the best hitter in the National League now, full stop.
Ohtani has missed just seven total games in the first two years of his Dodger tenure, but if Los Angeles needs someone to spell him, the choices are vast. We have Smith and Freeman listed here, but pick any slow, positionless masher on the roster. The Dodgers have several.
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