Serving solely as a designated hitter in his first year with the Los Angeles Dodgers, just about everything has gone right for Shohei Ohtani. He's striking out at a career-low rate. His slash includes a .318 average and .395 on-base percentage. He's hit 23 home runs and stolen 16 bases. And he's coming off his second National League Player of the Week of 2024.
And yet, somehow, June has shown another level to his game, specifically in regard to the power.
Not that it comes as a surprise. This is a guy who hit 44 homers last year and posted a .350 ISO across an entire season. He hit 46 and turned in a .335 ISO mark in 2021, too. We know about that part of his skill set. But as solid as he's been, June has represented his biggest power month as a Dodger yet.
Nine of Ohtani's 23 homers have come this month, exceeding the seven he posted in each of the prior two. His slugging for the month is at .679, easily trouncing his previous high of .618 in April. The ISO for the month of June sits at an absolutely wild .383.
That's all the byproduct of Shohei making his highest quality contact of the season. His HardHit% has jumped up to 68.8 percent for the month, including an obscene 83.9 mark against fastballs. Combine that with a 35.9 percent flyball rate that also serves as a season-high and it's only logical that the power numbers have seen such an insane bump.
In case you want to be just a little bit more impressed, Ohtani is 100th percentile in average exit velocity, and HardHit% for the year, while sitting 99th in Barrel%. There's virtually nobody doing it like Shohei Ohtani right now.