Let me preface by stating that both seasons are and will always be remembered as great individual, historic efforts. However, as a baseball fan, Shohei Ohtani’s achievement just one year after Ronald Acuña Jr.’s 40/70 season does make me wonder which season is actually more impressive.
In back-to-back seasons, two of the games’ biggest stars gave us a spectacle to watch unfold over the 162-game season.
On the surface, 40 home runs and 70 steals feels like it is a tougher feat. Maybe that is because it had been 14 years since the last 70 steal season in the big leagues. Baseball has an odd obsession with the power-speed combo, but maybe it is justified. After all, home runs and steals are two of the game’s most exciting aspects.
While 40/70 seems tougher, Ohtani’s 50/50 season is the more remarkable achievement. In baseball’s history, there have been just 50, 50 homer seasons. That fact might be lost on fans, as six of those seasons have come in the last seven years. Just last season, Matt Olson reached the mark.
Ultimately, it comes down to what’s more impressive: A 50 home run season or a 70 steal season. History supports the home runs. There have been 132 70-steal seasons in the history of baseball compared to the 50, 50 homer seasons.
HISTORY!!! Ohtani is the first player in MLB history to have a 50/50 season!!!#Dodgers pic.twitter.com/O6RNKqkVFs
— World Baseball Network (@WorldBaseball_) September 19, 2024
Ohtani’s 50-homer mark is a feat in and of itself; however, when you look at the other 50 seasons in which a player reached the mark, it adds to the story. Ohtani created chaos on the base paths the league has never seen from a power hitter. No player to have a 50-home run season has ever reached even 30 stolen bases in the same year until now.
Acuña is not void of an incredible stat like that one. Before Acuña, no player to swipe 70 bags ever got to the 30 home run mark. The most stolen bases in a 40-homer season prior had been 46.
Unfortunately for Acuña, the new rules geared towards baserunners do not help him. I will say that the 70 steal season is far less impressive now than it was even just three years ago. Acuña was a problem for opposing teams on the base paths as it was, but making stealing bases easier did not help his case against Ohtani.
Fifty home runs will always be impressive, simply because only 33 players have ever done it. There is a chance we will see many 70-steal seasons from different players over the next few seasons. Elly De La Cruz could even reach the mark this season. Undoubtedly, he also has the pop in his bat to get 40 home runs, so he may even be a candidate to join Acuã in the 40/70 club.
I am not trying to take anything away from Acuña’s season, as it was also a great display of power and speed throughout a long season. However, Shohei Ohtani is doing something unfathomable that we may never see again.
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WBN MLB: https://worldbaseball.com/league/mlb/
Photo Credit: Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Dodgers steals second base ahead of Otto Lopez #61 of the Miami Marlins during the first inning at loanDepot park on September 18, 2024 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
