Shohei Ohtani missed out on becoming the first Japanese to win two MVP awards in MLB on Thursday, when the Los Angeles Angels' slugging ace pitcher and 2021 winner finished runner-up in the American League to New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge.
Judge's 62 home runs set an AL record that had stood since 1961 and also led MLB with 133 runs and 131 RBIs, and received 28 of the 30 first-place votes cast to win for the first time.
Ohtani, who took part in the televised award announcement, said he was very impressed by Judge's performance.
"More than all the talk about the MVP, every day I watched him as a player," Ohtani said. "He was a must-watch and I enjoyed the show as he kept hitting one after the other."
"From next year on, I want to do my best to be back here often (at the announcements)."
A year after being the unanimous MVP, Ohtani, who won an MLB career-high 15 games in 2022 while hitting 34 home runs, received just two first-place votes and 28 second-place votes from the 30 writers who vote for the award.
Ohtani became the first player since 1903 with enough plate appearances and innings pitched in the same season to qualify for both the batting and ERA titles.
In his fifth season since moving from the Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan's Pacific League, where he was the 2016 MVP, Ohtani was third in the AL with 219 strikeouts, while his 2.33 ERA was the AL's fourth best. He also drove in 95 runs.
"Personally, I had an amazingly good season. Last year, my batting was better, and this year I was better as a pitcher," said Ohtani, just hours after he announced he would take part in March's World Baseball Classic.
"If I'm selected to play, I'll want to do my level best to put on a show since I haven't played in Japan in such a long time."
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