What makes Shohei Ohtani different from other star sluggers? It's not just the amount of home runs, or even the explosiveness of the home runs. It's also how he hits them.
The mantra of the modern-day MLB power hitter is to "hit the ball out in front" -- in other words, get the barrel of the bat to the ball when it's still ahead of the plate, ahead of their bodies. This is how hitters like Mookie Betts, Jose Altuve and Nolan Arenado hit their home runs. It gives their bat more time to accelerate, and lets them pull the ball in the air for home runs.
But there is also a select group of elite all-fields power hitters who do not rely on hitting the pitch out in front. Those hitters "let the ball get deep." These are the Aaron Judges, the Freddie Freemans, the Juan Sotos of the world.
And leading the way is Ohtani.
The back-to-back reigning MVP, who begins his 2025 quest for a three-peat on Tuesday when the Dodgers face the Cubs in the Tokyo Series, has one of the deepest contact points of any Major League hitter -- and especially compared to other MLB sluggers.
Statcast now tracks a wealth of batter position and contact point data, including where every MLB hitter stands in the batter's box and where they make contact with the baseball, compared to both the front edge of home plate and their own center of mass. That data is coming to Baseball Savant for Opening Day 2025 -- but here's a sneak peek of what it can show us:
Ohtani's deep contact point is the secret to his incredible all-fields power.
He can see the ball longer than most big league hitters, and still has the bat speed, the dangerous swing path and the bat-to-ball skill to crush home runs to every part of the ballpark.
- The average Major League hitter makes contact with the baseball 2.4 inches in front of home plate. Ohtani makes contact 3.7 inches behind the plate -- over six inches deeper than average.
- The average Major League hitter makes contact with the baseball 30.2 inches in front of their body. Ohtani makes contact just 25.7 inches in front of his body -- nearly five inches deeper than average.
The only way Ohtani can hit the ball so deep, and still have 54 home runs and 99 extra-base hits in 2024, is because he has elite bat speed. Ohtani's bat speed last season was 76.3 mph, ranking in the top 10 in baseball. He was one of only 25 hitters whose average swing was above Statcast's 75-plus mph "fast swing" threshold.
Among that group, Ohtani had by far the deepest contact point.
Deepest contact point among hitters with 75+ mph bat speed in 2024
Measured vs. the front edge of home plate
- Shohei Ohtani: 3.7" behind the plate
- Matt Chapman: 1.9" behind the plate
- Jorge Soler: 1.3" behind the plate
- Ryan Mountcastle: 0.3" behind the plate
- Aaron Judge: 0.2" behind the plate
- Jo Adell: Even with the plate
- Juan Soto: 1.1" in front of the plate
Ohtani's combination of high bat speed and deep contact produces some ridiculous home runs. Like when he turned around a 100.1 mph fastball from Paul Skenes and launched a 105.6 mph, 415-foot home run to center field in his first showdown with the Pirates flamethrower on June 5.
On that swing, Ohtani made contact with Skenes' triple-digit heater almost three inches behind the front edge of the plate. But his swing still reached 80 mph -- the highest end of bat speed -- and that let him drive the ball out to dead center. Here's what that home run swing looked like, with Statcast's tracking of Ohtani's swing up to the point of contact.
Here's another one: Ohtani's 114.3 mph, 451-foot blast to left-center field at Dodger Stadium on June 16.
This time, Ohtani simply waited on the pitch -- it wasn't a 100 mph elevated fastball, it was a 92.5 mph fastball right down the middle from Brady Singer. And then, only after it had gotten almost four inches past the plate, he hammered it with an 81.1 mph swing.
One more: Ohtani going 110.6 mph and 464 feet, again to left-center at Dodger Stadium. This one was an inside-out swing in a lefty-lefty matchup against Braves reliever A.J. Minter.
Minter's pitch was nearly seven inches deep past the plate when Ohtani's barrel connected with the ball. His bat speed at impact was still 76.9 mph, and that let him hit one of his longest home runs of the season to the opposite side of the field.
Thanks to swings like those, Ohtani has a beautiful spray chart. Across the regular season and postseason, Ohtani only pulled about half of his 57 home runs and 103 extra-base hits. The rest were spread around to straightaway center and the opposite field. If Ohtani's contact point were farther out in front, his batted ball profile would look a lot different.
Ohtani finished the Dodgers' World Series run with 24 home runs, and 53 extra-base hits, hit with a contact point at or behind the front of the plate. Both of those led the Majors. And, as you might expect, most of those ended up in center field or the opposite field.
Most HR with contact point at or behind the plate, 2024
Regular + Postseason
- Shohei Ohtani: 24
- Aaron Judge: 24
- Marcell Ozuna: 24
- Willy Adames: 16
- Juan Soto: 14
- Kyle Tucker: 13
- Paul Goldschmidt: 13
- Mark Vientos: 13
- Andrew McCutchen: 13
- Kerry Carpenter: 13
Most XBH with contact point at or behind the plate, 2024
Regular + Postseason
- Shohei Ohtani: 53
- Marcell Ozuna: 43
- Aaron Judge: 39
- Willy Adames: 34
- Jarren Duran: 33
- Paul Goldschmidt: 33
- Freddie Freeman: 31
- Matt Chapman: 31
- Juan Soto: 29
- J.D. Martinez: 28
Even against ace pitchers, Ohtani's hit-the-ball-deep approach pays off. Besides Skenes, Ohtani homered against Max Fried, Freddy Peralta and Michael King last season on swings where he made contact behind the plate. Even his dramatic postseason homer off Dylan Cease in the NLDS, which was a dead-pull home run to right field, still came off a deep-contact-point swing.
And a lot of the time, Ohtani sees the pitch, waits on it, unleashes a high-speed swing and launches a rocket. Ten of his home runs last season with a contact point behind the plate also had an exit velocity of 110 mph or higher.
Here's what some of those swings looked like:
Now, the point of all this isn't to say that Ohtani's style of hitting, hitting the ball deep, is the "best" way to hit. Plenty of MLB superstars hit the ball out in front -- Betts, Julio Rodríguez, Manny Machado, Yordan Alvarez, Bryce Harper and Gunnar Henderson, to name a few marquee players -- and are great because of it.
But it is his signature, as it is the signature of the other great all-fields hitters in baseball.
So when you watch Ohtani in 2025, and you see the home runs flying to left-center, you'll know he's not letting the ball travel by accident. Ohtani making contact deep behind the plate is not a product of him getting beat by pitches and barely catching up. It is a hallmark of his MVP approach at the plate.