Shohei Ohtani, coming off a sensational, largely unprecedented 2021 season, was crowned the American League's Most Valuable Player by the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Thursday.
The Los Angeles Angels star was a unanimous selection, receiving all 30 first-place votes overr fellow finalists Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Marcus Semien, both of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Ohtani fulfilled his promise as a two-way star and somehow exceeded the outsized expectations he carried with him from Japan four years earlier. He became the first player in baseball history to hit at least 30 home runs in a year when he also made at least 10 pitching appearances -- and that doesn't come close to capturing his wide-ranging excellence.