Coming into the 2024 campaign, few players in the MLB had as much pressure on them to perform as Shohei Ohtani. The two-time American League MVP changed the baseball landscape when he signed a massive 10-year, $700,000,000 deal to join the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After inking such a historic deal, many around the league questioned whether Ohtani could live up to that contract.

It’s safe to say that Shohei Ohtani has more than lived up to the hype surrounding him following his high-profile move to the Dodgers. Not only does the two-way superstar find himself as a frontrunner for the National League MVP Award, but he also broke two team records in the first half of the season.

Thanks to his 29 home runs and 69 RBIs with a .316 batting average, Ohtani was able to surpass two first-half records for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ohtani went past former NL MVP Cody Bellinger’s club record of 220 total bases in the first half of the season by racking up 235 of his own.

Ohtani also moved ahead of Hall of Famer Duke Snider for the most extra-base hits before the All-Star break. The Japanese star surpassed Snider’s record of 55 extra-base hits during the Dodger’s 11-9 loss to the Detroit Tigers on July 13 after hitting a massive home run in the fifth inning.