As soon as the World Series concluded each year, Ohtani’s relevance would resurface during awards season as he collected his annual array of honors, prompting discourse about how we had yet to see the planet’s most talented player on baseball’s biggest stage.

As a reminder, Ohtani hasn't pitched since Aug. 23, 2023. He underwent surgery on his pitching elbow less than a month later. At the time, his surgeon said it was to "repair the issue at hand and to reinforce the healthy ligament in place while adding viable tissue for the longevity of the elbow."

"Other than the obvious," Judge said with a smile. "I feel like everything's obvious. He hits for average, hits for power, the speed. Doing what he did this year with the 50 stolen bases ... It got talked about a lot but I don't think it got talked about enough."