Shohei Ohtani

1994–present

Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani is a star hitter and pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. A three-time MVP and 2024 World Series champion, Ohtani has drawn comparisons to baseball legend Babe Ruth for his two-way dominance on the mound and at the plate. Born in Oshu, Japan, he began his pro career in his home country before joining the MLB for the 2018 season. Ohtani won Rookie of the Year with the Los Angeles Angels and emerged as one of the game’s top sluggers. In 2023, he agreed to a record-breaking $700 million free-agent contract with the Dodgers and later became the first MLB player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season.

FULL NAME: Shohei Ohtani
BORN: July 5, 1994
BIRTHPLACE: Oshu, Japan
SPOUSE: Mamiko Tanaka
CHILD: 1 daughter
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Cancer
HEIGHT: 6 ft. 3 in.

Shohei Ohtani was born on July 5, 1994, in Mizusawa—now part of Oshu—in Japan’s Iwate prefecture. His father, Toru, is a former amateur baseball player and worked at a Mitsubishi production plant. His mother, Kayoko, has a similar competitive streak and became a prominent Japanese badminton player. Ohtani has an older brother, Ryuta, and a sister, Yuka.

Toru developed his sons’ interest in baseball at an early age, playing catch with them for hours after returning from his job. Ohtani began playing in an organized weekend little league at age 8. His favorite player was Hideki Matsui, a star slugger in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league who was named World Series MVP while playing for the New York Yankees in 2009.

Still, Ohtani wasn’t dreaming about a baseball career. “I didn’t think I was good,” he said. “Before high school I didn’t participate in many tournaments, so I assumed there must be many players better than me.”

But his skills showed otherwise. In 2012, the then-17-year-old set a Japanese record by throwing a 99.4-mph pitch for Hanamaki Higashi High School. Swimming was also part of his training regimen, and his coach, Hiroshi Sasaki, claimed Ohtani was talented enough in the pool to make the Japanese Olympic team. But to prevent the high school phenom or any other pitcher on the team from getting too big of an ego, Sasaki required them to clean toilets as a lesson in humility.

Now, Ohtani was determined to go pro in baseball. There was only one question: Where would he play?

Shohei Ohtani was determined to enter the MLB after high school, but Japan’s Hokkaido Nippon–Ham Fighters persuaded him to accept their offer in 2012.

With pro scouts showing plenty of interest, Ohtani initially planned to move to the United States and go straight to the MLB out of high school. He held meetings with teams including the Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Baltimore Orioles, and Texas Rangers. He also instructed clubs from the Nippon Professional Baseball league to refrain from drafting him.

However, the sabermetric-friendly Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters couldn’t resist Ohtani’s offensive and pitching potential and selected him first overall in 2012. General manager Yasao Yamada created a video presentation for the teenager, highlighting the arduous travel and cultural differences in the U.S. minor leagues compared to Ohtani’s immediate star power if he stayed in Japan. The pitch worked, and Ohtani announced that October he would play for the Fighters.

Ohtani was solid, but not spectacular, in his rookie season as he batted only .238 and made just 11 starts as a pitcher. But with the team’s commitment to letting him both hit and pitch regularly, Ohtani quickly improved in 2014, winning 11 games on the mound and striking out more than one batter per inning while raising his batting average more than 30 points.

“I feel like I was more talented as a hitter growing up, and it was hard for me to pitch actually,” Ohtani later told The Pat McAfee Show. “So, I feel like I’m more of a hitter who learned how to pitch more than a pitcher learning how to hit.”

Ohtani won 25 games over the next two years and, by 2017, increased his batting average to a career-best .332. With both parts of his game clicking, it was time to give the American major leagues a try.

Los Angeles Angels: MLB Rookie of the Year, MVP Awards, and Injuries

In November 2017, MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball agreed to a posting framework for Ohtani, meaning the Japanese league would receive a portion of his rookie salary in exchange for his playing rights. The coveted pitcher narrowed his teams down to seven, including the Dodgers and the nearby Los Angeles Angels (located in Anaheim, California).

That December, Ohtani signed with the Angels, a team with another rising superstar in Mike Trout but no playoff wins since 2009. Because of his age, then-23-year-old Ohtani was subject to a league minimum salary of $545,000 over his first three seasons, plus up to $3.5 million in incentives. “I look forward to becoming part of the Angel family. I look forward to playing in front of all you great Angel fans, and hopefully we can bring a championship back to Anaheim,” Ohtani said at his introduction.

Shohei Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Angels in December 2017 and played for the franchise for the next five seasons.

Ohtani singled in his first regular season at-bat on March 29, 2018, and picked up a win in his pitching debut three days later. Although the attention around Ohtani continued to build, he was placed on the injured list by June with a ligament sprain—a harbinger of injury woes to come.

Despite the hiatus, Ohtani finished the season with 22 home runs and a 4-2 record, enough to earn 2018 American League Rookie of the Year honors. But at the end of the season, he underwent Tommy John surgery to repair his UCL. Recovering from his elbow ligament tear prevented him from pitching the following year.

After missing the first month of the 2019 season, Ohtani posted similar power numbers in his second year, hitting 18 home runs with 62 RBIs. He also became the first Japanese player to hit for the cycle—recording a single, double, triple, and home run in the same game. However, his season ended early because of knee surgery.

Then in the 2020 season, which was delayed more than three months by the COVID-19 pandemic and shortened to 60 games, Ohtani had his worst season as a pro with a .190 batting average and less than 2 innings pitched because of a forearm injury.

Finally healthy and determined to rebound, Ohtani overhauled his training regimen for 2021 by changing his diet, taking more batting practice from a live pitcher, and building up leg strength. “I want to have fun and just feel good out there, and do my job when it’s given,” he told The Los Angeles Times during spring training.

The adjustments paid off. Ohtani made his first All-Star team as he racked up 46 home runs that season and went 9-2 on the mound in 23 games pitched with 156 strikeouts. Although the Angels missed the playoffs for a seventh straight season, Ohtani’s two-way success was unlike anything seen in modern baseball and good enough to earn his first league MVP award.

Ohtani had a statistically similar season at the plate in 2022 and emerged as one of the best pitchers in the majors, finishing sixth in total strikeouts (219) and going 15-9. He did more of the same in 2023, leading the AL with 44 home runs and winning his second MVP.

Los Angeles Dodgers: 2024 World Series Champ

In his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani showed off his incredible hitting power and helped the team win the 2024 World Series.

Now considered a bona fide superstar, Ohtani became one of the most coveted free agents in MLB history as his Angels contract expired. With speculation rampant about which club would have the finances to lure him, the Dodgers ultimately won out in December 2023 with a 10-year contract worth $700 million, the largest in professional sports at the time.

Although Ohtani didn’t pitch in 2024 because of his second elbow surgery the year prior, his hitting power and base-running were on full display. Second in the majors that season in both home runs (54) and RBIs (130) behind Aaron Judge, Ohtani also stole 59 bases to become the first player in MLB history with 50 home runs and 50 steals in one season. He collected his third consecutive league MVP award, this time in the NL. And finally, after six losing seasons, he made the postseason for the first time. The Dodgers advanced to the World Series, where they bested Judge and the New York Yankees in five games.

So far in his professional baseball career, Ohtani has hit 321 home runs and driven in 824 runs over 13 seasons, according to Baseball Reference. While his hitting power has increased vastly in the MLB—including tallying 273 of his career home runs—many of his major pitching statistics have slightly declined since leaving Japan.

Within MLB, Ohtani is a three-time league MVP (twice with the Angels and once with the Dodgers) and a five-time All Star. He became the only player named an All Star as a pitcher and a position player in 2021.

Here is a breakdown of his regular season MLB stats as of September 10, 2025:

Batting

• Games played: 1017
• Hits: 1,031
• Doubles: 188
• Triples: 44
• Home runs: 273
• RBIs: 658
• Strikeouts: 1,083
• Batting average: .281
• On-base percentage: .374
• Stolen bases: 162

Pitching

• Appearances: 98
• Innings pitched: 517.2
• Wins: 39
• Losses: 20
• Earned run average: 3.06
• Strikeouts: 657
• Walks: 181
• Home runs allowed: 56

Ohtani is currently in the second year of his Dodgers contract, which runs through the 2033 season and is worth $70 million annually. However, Ohtani will earn only $2 million per season for the length of the contract and receive the rest—approximately $680 million—in deferred payments running from 2034 through 2043.

The unique structure helps the Dodgers save money in the short term and gives the team flexibility to acquire other players in free agency. However, Ohtani’s contract still counts approximately $46 million per season toward the MLB’s competitive balance tax, a luxury tax charged to teams that spend beyond the threshold for cumulative player salaries (in 2025, that figure is $241 million). The Dodgers incurred a $103 million penalty during their first season with Ohtani as one of the league’s biggest overspenders.

Ohtani’s premium earning power has helped him grow a total fortune of around $150 million as of August 2025, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Forbes’s has a lower estimate of $102.5 million. Still, the business magazine ranks him as the ninth-highest-paid athlete in the world for 2025. Whatever the true number, Ohtani’s net worth should climb quickly because of endorsements with more than 20 brands, including Seiko Watch, Fanatics, and New Balance.

In August 2025, one of the baseball player’s endorsement deals resulted in a lawsuit. A Hawaii real estate investor and broker sued Ohtani and his agent, Nez Balelo, accusing them of “tortious interference” and “unjust enrichment” for sabotaging a $240 million real estate project the slugger was paid to endorse. The suit alleges the MLB star and his rep “exploited their celebrity leverage to destabilize and ultimately dismantle Plaintiffs’ role in the project,” leading to their firing from the development deal. The legal matter is ongoing.

Interpreter’s Betting Scandal

Ohtani unwittingly found himself at the center of controversy away from the diamond in March 2024. The Los Angeles Times reported the baseball star’s interpreter Ippei Mizuhara had placed bets with a bookmaker and was under federal investigation. Representatives for the slugger accused Mizuhara of a “massive theft” of Ohtani’s earnings to place the bets and pay off gambling debts. Mizuhara, who had worked with Ohtani since 2017, was fired by the Dodgers amid the accusations.

MLB’s gambling policy prohibits players, umpires, and team officials or employees from wagering on league games or making illegal bets on other sports. Violators are subject to a one-year or permanent ban, depending on the circumstances.

In April 2024, federal prosecutors charged Mizuhara with bank fraud and accused him of stealing more than $16 million from Ohtani without his knowledge. Mizuhara later pleaded guilty to the fraud and to filing a false tax return; he was sentenced to 4 years and 9 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution. Ohtani wasn’t charged in the case and hasn’t been penalized by MLB.

Shohei Ohtani and his wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walk the red carpet prior to the 2025 MLB All-Star Game.

Ohtani is married to Mamiko Tanaka, a former Japanese professional basketball player. The couple have one child, a daughter whose name they haven’t shared publicly. She was born in April 2025.

The baseball star confirmed his marriage in a February 2024 Instagram post but didn’t reveal his wife’s identity at the time. “Not only have I began a new chapter in my career with the Dodgers but I also have began a new life with someone from my Native [sic] country of Japan who is very special to me,” he wrote. The Dodgers star and Tanaka appeared together in public for the first time that May at a team charity gala.

Tanaka, who is two and a half years younger than Ohtani, played for the Fujitsu Red Wave of the Women’s Japan Basketball League from 2019 through 2023.

• It’s actually an honor to feel the pressure, because that means there’s a lot of expectations, and I just change that to something that’s more of a positive.
• Hitting and pitching, it’s the only baseball I know. Doing only one and not the other doesn’t feel natural to me.
• Many fans tell me that they came all the way from Japan to see me. That’s the real blessing, so I want to show them my best.
• Naturally, I just want to progress and get better, so I do have a vision of just getting better and many, many steps. So, that’s what I’m trying to do on a daily basis.

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Tyler Piccotti

News and Culture Editor, Biography.com

Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.