Shohei Ohtani won the American League MVP Award in 2021.
However, in 2022, the award went to Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees instead.

Judge’s MVP season was driven largely by his 62 home runs, but Ohtani’s performance that year was extraordinary as well.

His numbers were:

• Pitching: 15–9 record, 2.33 ERA, 219 strikeouts
• Hitting: .273 batting average, 34 home runs, 95 RBIs, 11 stolen bases

By any standard, both sets of numbers ranked among the best in Major League Baseball.

Given that Ohtani contributed at an elite level both as a pitcher and a hitter, many believed his overall value should have exceeded Judge’s.

However, according to WAR — the advanced statistic designed to measure a player’s total contribution — Judge finished at 10.6 while Ohtani was at 9.6.

One reason was that Ohtani primarily served as a designated hitter and did not play defense in the field, resulting in a negative positional adjustment of -1.7 in the WAR calculation.

This exposed a deeper issue:

Baseball had never really seen a player like Ohtani before.

As a result, existing metrics struggled to properly evaluate a player making massive contributions both as a pitcher and as a hitter at the same time.

If there were many players like Ohtani, comparisons would be easier, and people could judge performance more naturally.

But because there is no true comparison, even evaluating him becomes difficult.

That, perhaps, is one of the unique challenges faced by a pioneer.

Source

This quote comes from a Japanese book published in Japan and is not currently available in English.

The Trajectory of Shohei Ohtani: The Birth of a Two-Way Major Leaguer, p.245