Shohei Ohtani continues to swipe bases at record pace as Dodgers star aims to join exclusive 40-40 club

Only five players in MLB history have tallied 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in the same season

By Dayn Perry Aug 16, 2024 at 1:58 pm ET• 2 min read

Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani is of course best known for his historically unexampled combination of power at the plate and ace-grade skills as a starting pitcher. He's not pitching this season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery, but the $700 million man remains one of the most deadly hitters in baseball as the Dodgers' every-day designated hitter. His skills don't end there, though. Ohtani has long been a hasty presence on the bases, and this season he's taken his base-stealing to new heights. Indeed, Ohtani may have yet another appointment with history thanks in part to his knack for pilfering bases in 2024. 

Going into the Dodgers' weekend series against the St. Louis Cardinals, Ohtani has a National League-leading 37 home runs and 35 stolen bases (against just four times caught). With 40 games remaining on the Dodgers' schedule. Barring the wholly unexpected, those tallies mean that Ohtani will almost certainly join the exclusive 40-40 club, or those players to amass at least 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in the same season. It's happened just five times across all of Major League Baseball history: 

Player, team	Year	Home runs	Stolen bases
Ronald Acuña Jr., Atlanta Braves	2023	41	73
Alfonso Soriano, Washington Nationals	2006	46	41
Alex Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners	1998	42	46
Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants	1996	42	40
Jose Canseco, Oakland A's	1988	42	40

Ohtani's current pace will put him at 49 home runs and 46 stolen bases for the regular season. That, obviously, would make him the sixth member of the 40-40 club, and it would also make Ohtani the first ever to compile at least 45 homers and 45 steals in a season. It's no stretch to imagine a slight uptick on both fronts that puts 50-50 in play. 

He also may be the quickest ever to 40-40, as Eric Stephen recently noted: