Who’s The Better Player Babe Ruth vs Shohei Ohtani: Let The Stats Decide The Debate

There is no doubt that the Los Angeles Angels will be closely watched by the whole Baseball community this season as they play out. The development of some of our young pitchers, Mike Trout’s dominance at the plate now that he is healthy, and Anthony Rendon’s recovery from injury-plagued years are all things that our supporters will be rooting for but the majority eyes on Shohei Ohtani!

Opposing fan groups will be keeping an eye on Shohei Ohtani, though, to see whether he becomes available for trade or the free agent market. He has excelled above all expectations of stardom and keeps becoming better. Nobody is as productive as he is both at the plate and on the pitching mound.

Adam Schein of CBS, who appeared on his “Time To Schein” show, seemed to be the greatest supporter of Ohtani, saying that he thought the 28-year-old pitcher easily outranked Babe Ruth.

“Babe Ruth has never accomplished what Shohei Ohtani accomplished,” said Schein. “No one alive has ever seen Babe Ruth play so everybody just stop. There is nothing bigger and better and more exhilarating, as a sports fan, than watching Shohei Ohtani do his unprecedented thing.”

Not for the first time in recent memory, an MLB expert has ranked Ohtani quite highly among all-time greats. Although only played in five MLB seasons to date, he had left his stamp on the game.

He just completed a 2022 season in which he batted.273/.356/.519, with a 2.33 ERA, and advanced to the finals of the MVP and Cy Young awards. He has other competitors waiting to clear the pitch should he become available, and he has a solid reputation.

Babe Ruth vs. Shohei Ohtani: Hitting stats

Shohei Ohtani’s career is, obviously, still in progress. Still, rate stats can tell us something about how both hitters match up.

Here’s the boilerplate stuff to know (stats per 162-game average):

Ruth Stat Ohtani
688 PAs 650
186 Hits 152
33 Doubles 29
9 Triples 6
46 Home runs 36
.342  Average .273
.474 OBP .354
.690 Slugging .532
183.1 (2,503 games) bWAR 24.8 (566 games)

And the rate stats to know are pretty helpful, as well:

Ruth Stat Ohtani
6.7 HR% 5.6
12.5 K% 26.9
7.8 BB% 11.4

Though recency bias has been a little unfair to Ruth, his career slash line of .342/.474/.690 is one of the greatest in baseball history. That’s not to say Ohtani’s .267/.354/.532 line is inconsequential, but Ruth played in a much different era with significantly different pitchers. More on that below.

Babe Ruth vs. Shohei Ohtani: Pitching stats

Here’s how their numbers match up as pitchers:

Ruth Stat Ohtani
163 (147) Games (Starts) 63 (63)
1221 1/3 Innings 349 2/3
.222 BAA .206
.571 OPS against .610
9 HRs allowed 35
2.28 ERA 2.96
9.8 Strikeout % 31.1

Ohtani’s distinctions aren’t as pronounced: His.610 OPS against is 121 points worse than the MLB average, which stands at.247, and is 41 points higher than his.206 BAA. That being said, it’s nothing to belittle.

Yet, Ohtani’s strikeout percentage of 31.1 percent is still greater than the 22.8 percent rate at which MLB players struck out during his four seasons as a pitcher. Players in Ruth’s era struck out significantly less frequently.

uth is given credit for playing both sides of the pitch, which is fair, but only to a certain extent. Ruth only only played two positions, switching from pitcher to outfielder for the entire 1919 season. The previous two seasons, Ohtani has alternated between being a full-time starter and DH.

Here’s how their numbers match up as pitchers:

Ruth Stat Ohtani
163 (147) Games (Starts) 63 (63)
1221 1/3 Innings 349 2/3
.222 BAA .206
.571 OPS against .610
9 HRs allowed 35
2.28 ERA 2.96
9.8 Strikeout % 31.1

Ruth’s BAA of.222 was impressive considering it was 110 points lower than the MLB average of.332. His OPS allowed was.571, which was 260 points lower than the.831 MLB average.

Ohtani’s distinctions aren’t as pronounced: His.610 OPS against is 121 points worse than the MLB average, which stands at.247, and is 41 points higher than his.206 BAA. That being said, it’s nothing to belittle.

Yet, Ohtani’s strikeout percentage of 31.1 percent is still greater than the 22.8 percent rate at which MLB players struck out during his four seasons as a pitcher. Players in Ruth’s era struck out significantly less frequently.

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Babe Ruth vs. Shohei Ohtani: Who’s better?

Baseball in particular makes comparing different periods nearly always futile. The top African baseball players weren’t permitted to compete in the major leagues when Ruth was playing, which prevented some of the greatest players in history from competing. It’s not a minor thing to attempt to take that out of the narrative.

Also, there were fewer baseball players and teams to play against, and success or failure was greatly influenced by how well opponents knew one another.

Ruth’s career is also unexplored in terms of several statistical metrics, including pitch velocity, exit velocity, and home run distance. A home run sent to Mars and Ohtani hitting 100 mph on the radar gun strike much differently than a fat Ruth waving his cap and shuffling around the bases.

There isn’t really a direct parallel between Ruth and Ohtani, though, if you’re seeking for one. The fact is that Ohtani is doing and has done nothing like it before since entering Major League Baseball.

Ruth’s 1919 season is arguably the clearest example of how her career compares to what Ohtani is doing. Before to 1919, Ruth mostly played as a pitcher and had just 789 plate appearances in 261 games as a batter (1919 was the first and only year he had both 500 plate appearances and 15 starts).

In fact, here’s a list of players who have had 500 PAs and more than 10 pitching starts in a season, post-1900:

  • Babe Ruth, 1919: 9.8 bWAR as a hitter, 0.8 bWAR as a pitcher.
  • Shohei Ohtani, 2021: 4.9 bWAR as a hitter, 4.1 bWAR as a pitcher.
  • Shohei Ohtani, 2022: 3.4 bWAR as a hitter, 6.2 bWAR as a pitcher

Apologies to those seeking closure. We regret if you were searching for a clear answer to the question, “Who is the greatest baseball player of all time?”

 

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