It is no easy feat for Shohei Ohtani to win the Cy Young Award! MLB.com reporter outlines three key conditions.

Shohei Ohtani, the two-way superstar for the Los Angeles Dodgers, has an illustrious career featuring four MVP titles, two World Series championships, and an NLCS MVP honor. This season, his impressive pitching stats—five wins and a 0.82 ERA—have made him a serious candidate for his first Cy Young Award. MLB.com reporter Manny Randhawa has broken down the three essential conditions for "Pitcher Ohtani" to claim the prize.

Ohtani's ERA over nine starts this season is an astonishing 0.82, but advanced metrics show his expected ERA sits at 2.38. Although he threw six no-hit innings against the Rockies last week, he also walked four batters in that game, highlighting room for improvement. Competing against left-hander Cristopher Sánchez of the Phillies (1.47 ERA) and Brewers flamethrower Jacob Misiorowski (1.65 ERA), Ohtani must keep his season ERA firmly below 2.00 to gain an edge.

The article also notes that Ohtani's career strikeout rate is 31.1%, but it has slightly dropped to 28.6% this year. Because the Dodgers use a six-man rotation, Ohtani's total strikeouts will naturally be lower than pitchers who start every five days, so he needs to boost his strikeout rate. The good news is that his two primary pitches remain devastating: his four-seam fastball has a run value of +10, ranking fourth in all of MLB, while his signature sweeper holds a run value of +9, the best in the league, with a whiff rate of 39%.

However, as a two-way player, the Dodgers strictly manage Ohtani's workload to allow him to both hit and pitch. Based on his current average of six innings per start and an estimated 27 starts for the season, Ohtani would total around 165 innings. While that clears the 162-inning threshold to qualify for the ERA title, historically, the fewest innings pitched by a Cy Young winner in a full season was 167 by Corbin Burnes in 2021. Randhawa states that Ohtani must stay completely healthy, not miss a single start, and push toward a career-high 170 innings to convince the voters.