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Angels

Shohei Ohtani wins Player’s Choice Award as AL’s outstanding player

Angeles designated hitter Shohei Ohtani during a game with the New York Yankees on July 18, 2023.
Angels designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, shown during a game against the New York Yankees on July 18, won a top honor in voting from major league players.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Los Angeles Times staffer Sarah Valenzuela
By Sarah Valenzuela
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Shohei Ohtani has been selected the American League Outstanding Player in this year’s Player’s Choice Awards announced Thursday.

It’s the second season Ohtani has earned a Player’s Choice award. In 2021, he was voted Player of the Year and AL Outstanding Player. Major league players voted on these awards at the end of September.

In 2023, Ohtani had 44 home runs, 95 RBIs, 78 extra-base hits and led the majors in slugging rate (.654) and on-base-plus-slugging rate (1.066) over 135 games as the Angels’ designated hitter. As a pitcher, he went 10-5 with a 3.14 earned-run average and 167 strikeouts in 132 innings.

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Shohei Ohtani officially is a free agent and is expected to draw interest from the Dodgers and other teams.

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Ohtani, who is a free agent, finished the season on the injured list, dealing with an oblique issue and having surgery to repair his right ulnar collateral ligament tear.

Ohtani and the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts were finalists for Player of the Year. Atlanta Braves right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. won that award, along with NL Outstanding Player.

Other awards in which Ohtani is a finalist for include: AL Silver Slugger at DH, the winner of which will be announced on Nov. 9, and AL most valuable player, the winner to be revealed on Nov. 16.

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Angels
Sarah Valenzuela

Sarah Valenzuela is the former Angels beat writer for the Los Angeles Times. She previously worked at the New York Daily News, where she covered the New York Liberty and contributed to coverage of the New York Mets and New York Yankees. Before that, the Queens native was a freelancer with bylines in Thrillist and Self Magazine, worked as a production assistant with SNY-TV and MLB.com and briefly was a general assignment reporter for the Bronx Times. Valenzuela graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.

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