NEW YORK - The Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani was named among the three finalists for the National League MVP on Monday as he bids to win his fourth straight honor as a league's best-performing player in MLB.
The two-way star won all his four MVPs to date on unanimous votes, in the American League in 2021 and 2023 while at the Los Angeles Angels, and in the NL in 2024 and 2025 with the Dodgers.
Ohtani enjoyed a strong pitching start to the year by going 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA in 14 starts. But he was troubled by left knee soreness since June before leaving the game on July 3 with right biceps inflammation in his last outing of the season on the mound.
The 32-year-old hit his last home run of the season on Aug. 18 before he was placed on the 15-day injured list in September to deal with the inflammation. He ended the regular season with 30 home runs, his lowest in six years, batted .275 and had 81 RBIs.
Ohtani is shortlisted alongside Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs, seen as the favorite to win the MVP after hitting 45 home runs and stealing 41 bases, and Brice Turang of the World Series-winning Milwaukee Brewers, one of MLB's elite defenders.
This year's voting result for the MVP by the Baseball Writers' Association of America will be announced on Nov. 12.
Among other Japanese players, Munetaka Murakami had 35 home runs for the Chicago White Sox and Kazuma Okamoto 33 for the Toronto Blue Jays in their debut seasons, but neither were finalists for the American League's Rookie of the Year.
Right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers was not among the NL Cy Young Award nominees after going 14-9 with a 2.53 ERA.
