PHOTO: Adorable picture of Shohei Ohtani with his dad as a youngster wows fans on Father's Day
Shohei Ohtani is the MVP favorite this season, proving to be an elite pitcher and possibly the best hitter in baseball. He leads all hitters with 23 home runs (though his main competition in Aaron Judge and Pete Alonso are on the IL) while simultaneously striking out more batters than anyone in the AL not named Kevin Gausman.
Long before all of that, he was just an adorable kid hanging out with his father. On Father's Day, MLB shared the picture to their account to celebrate the potential MVP and his father. Fans love it, as it has over 71,000 likes in just two hours at the time of writing.
Ohtani's father didn't play in the MLB like some other father-son duos:
- Vladimir Guerrero Sr. and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
- Dante Bichette and Bo Bichette
- Craig Biggio and Cavan Biggio
- Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr.
- Bob Boone and Aaron Boone
- Fernando Tatis Sr. and Fernando Tatis Jr.
Still, Ohtani's picture with his dad has impressed baseball fans this morning.
Is Shohei Ohtani a lock for MVP?
At his current pace, it does not look like anyone's going to be able to stop Shohei Ohtani from winning MVP this season. He is unstoppable at the plate right now and striking out nearly everyone on the mound.
Every day that Aaron Judge sits on the IL is a boost for Ohtani's chances, though even Judge would have a hard time wresting the award away this year. Ohtani has been that good and the voters will not be inclined to vote for the "new guy" in Judge.
Ohtani may not finish with the most home runs in the league like he has now, but he will finish near the top of the leaderboard. He'll do the same in a ton of pitching statistics, too.
With that kind of season, it's hard to envision anyone getting hot enough over the next few months to take the award out of his hands.