Shohei Ohtani denied MVP history as Pete Crow-Armstrong wins in landslide

Barry Bonds is the only player in MLB history to have won MVP Awards in four consecutive seasons.On Thursday, Shohei Ohtani officially saw his chances of replicating that accomplishment dashed.As expected, Ohtani finished as a runner-up in National League MVP voting following his injury-plagued –– yet still overall productive –– 2026 campaign, falling to breakout Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong in a balloting process that saw the 24-year-old center fielder win the award unanimously.Ohtani had previously won back-to-back NL MVPs the past two seasons with the Dodgers, as well as the 2023 AL MVP in his final season with the Angels.During the first couple months of the year, it seemed unthinkable that Ohtani wouldn’t equal Bonds’ four-in-a-row achievement –– accomplished, amid later steroid controversy, from 2001 to 2004 –– and claim MVP honors for the fifth time in his historic career.Through play June 7, he was hitting .300 while leading the NL with a .939 OPS.More impressively, he had dominated in his return to full-time pitching duties, going 6-2 in his first 10 starts on the mound with an MLB-best 0.74 ERA and 67 strikeouts in 61 innings.After spending the previous two years recovering from a second-career Tommy John surgery, the 32-year-old seemed to be back at the peak of his two-way powers.Days later, however, Ohtani’s season took a turn, beginning with a series in Pittsburgh in which he gave up a season-high four runs to the Pirates one night, then was removed early as designated hitter the next because of inflammation in his left knee.That would mark the beginning of a summer-long injury crisis that steadily diminished Ohtani’s form in his hitting and pitching roles.In early July, he developed a right arm injury to go along with his left knee problems.

During the All-Star break, he was taken out of the Dodgers’ starting rotation to get a lubricant injection in his knee and didn’t return to the mound the rest of the year.Instead, Ohta...