MLB finally has Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani in the playoffs, and he will be very hard to miss in the league’s promotion of the postseason.
Ohtani toiled over the first six seasons of his MLB career for the lowly Angels before shifting to the crosstown Dodgers, where he made history as the league’s first player with 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season. Now the phenom is a central figure of league marketing—both in the U.S. and in his native Japan.
The league is featuring Ohtani within the latest installment of its “Baseball Is Something Else” brand campaign featuring actor Brian Tyree Henry.
In Japan, meanwhile, MLB has implemented an out-of-home takeover across Tokyo, setting up 113 billboards around the megacity that feature each individual homer and stolen base for Ohtani during the regular season. In addition to spotlighting Ohtani’s historic season and promoting the playoffs, the Japanese effort serves as a forerunner for March, when the Dodgers and Cubs begin the 2025 MLB season with two games in Tokyo. The two-game set will be part of the ongoing MLB World Tour of international games and bring Ohtani back to his home country for regular-season games.
By that point, Ohtani is also expected to resume pitching and again become a two-way player.
“Certainly having Ohtani on this stage is great for the game, great for the fans, and he’s having such a historic season,” MLB deputy commissioner Noah Garden tells Front Office Sports. “For everybody to be able to see him on that big [posteason] stage is good and important. … We’re using this opportunity to make sure from a global perspective that all our fans are connected to the game, and in certain areas where it makes sense to promote Ohtani front and center, we’re doing just that.”
The Dodgers, the top seed in the National League playoffs, will begin the Division Series on Saturday at home against the Padres, who eliminated the Braves with a 5-4 win Wednesday night to complete a two-game sweep in the wild-card series. Given the long malaise of the Angels, also the team of star outfielder Mike Trout, MLB had not had its unofficial “best player in the game” in the postseason at any point in the last decade—a streak now broken by Ohtani.
