All year long, Shohei Ohtani has been the lead story – the brightest light – in Major League Baseball. And that was even more true in the final month of the regular season, as he became the first player in MLB history to hit at least 50 home runs and steal at least 50 bases in the same season, and seemingly did something new and amazing each day.
But Ohtani wasn’t the only import player to stand out in September. Starters Yusei Kikuchi of the Houston Astros and Shota Imanaga of the Chicago Cubs, and outfielder Seiya Suzuki of the Cubs were also solid.
In addition, Yu Darvish of the Padres and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers returned from long injury absences and pitched well.
Elsewhere, pitcher Kenta Maeda of the Detroit Tigers showed some spark at the end of a difficult season, while designated hitter Masataka Yoshida of the Boston Red Sox fell off after a couple of good months, and reliever Yuki Matsui of the Padres stumbled a bit.
Starter Kodai Senga of the New York Mets, who has missed virtually the entire season due to injuries, did not play in September but is rumored to be a possibility for the playoffs.
And the season is not over for Ohtani, Yamamoto, Kikuchi, Darvish, Matsui, and possibly Senga, as their teams qualified for post-season play.
Shohei Ohtani
After reaching the 40-40 level in a record 126 games, Ohtani then attained the 43-43 level by the end of August – something no MLB player had previously accomplished. But did he slow down?
No.
On September 19, he went 6-6 – including three home runs – drove in 10 runs and stole two bases to become the first player in MLB history to reach the 50-50 level.
“This game has been around for a long time, and to do something that’s never been done — he’s one of one,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It couldn’t be a more talented player. He couldn’t be more humble. … It was a win for Major League Baseball.”
“If I’m being honest, it was something I wanted to get over as soon as possible because the balls were being exchanged every time I was up to bat, so it was something that I wanted to get over with,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I’m just happy, relieved, and very respectful to my peers and everybody that came before that played this sport of baseball.”
Ohtani, though, still didn’t stop. When the regular season ended on September 29, he had a career-best .310 batting average, 54 home runs and 130 RBI. He also became just the 19th player in MLB history to get at least 400 total bases in a season, and his 59 stolen bases are most ever by a Japanese-born player in MLB, surpassing the 56 of Ichiro Suzuki. He was caught trying to steal just four times.
Ohtani averaged .393 in September – his highest monthly mark of the season – with 10 home runs and 32 RBI, and he stole 16 bases in 16 attempts.
His 9.2 WAR figure, according to Baseball Reference, is by far his career best and ranked third in MLB behind only Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees and Bobby Witt, Jr., of the Kansas City Royals.
Ohtani ranked first in MLB in runs scored; second in home runs, RBIs, slugging percentage, OPS, and stolen bases; fourth in hits and bases on balls; and fifth in on-base percentage.
Yusei Kikuchi
After quite a bit of trade speculation, Kikuchi was dealt to Houston on July 29 and was very effective in his first month with the club. Two factors, reportedly, have been less reliance on his curveball and more on his slider.
His September performance was again outstanding, as he was 2-1 with a 2.88 earned-run mark and 0.92 WHIP. With a 5-1 mark since joining Houston, he’s proven that the expensive deal with Toronto was worth it for the Astros, who first overtook and then hold off Seattle for the American League West Division championship.
“Obviously, I heard a lot of what the fans had to say [about the trade perhaps coming at too high a cost] and stuff,” Kikuchi said after defeating the Los Angeles Angels on September 13. “From there, I just want to think that our GM, Dana Brown, he made an awesome decision. I just want to prove to everybody what I’m capable of. Everything is going well right now, but obviously we have one goal in mind as a team — and that’s just to win the World Series.”
Astros’ third baseman Alex Bregman added, “He’s been awesome for us. Obviously, facing him, we knew how good his stuff was. And definitely when you get a guy of his caliber, you hope for big things, and he’s come through and answered the call every time.”
Overall this season, Kikuchi finished the regular season with a 9-10 record, a 4.05 earned-run average and 1.20 WHIP.
Shōta Imanaga
In September, Imanaga completed an excellent first season in MLB, going 4-1 with a 1.67 ERA in four starts and posting a microscopic 0.85 WHIP.
His overall marks were a 15-3 win/loss record, 2.91 ERA, and 1.02 WHIP.
He became the Cubs’ first rookie pitcher since Dick Drott (in 1957) to win 15 games in a season. Chicago was 23-6 in games he started, while just 60-73 in the other games.
“He’s been our best pitcher. He’s been our best player,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “There’s no question about it. He’s just delivered, and he’s been a huge boost for us.”
“Talking to Craig, talking to my teammates, they really emphasized how important it is to stay healthy — especially in September,” Imanaga said. “That was one of the goals of mine, especially back in Spring Training — being able to continue to pitch, stay healthy. I think I was able to do that and I think the preparation, and communication with the teammates helped.”
Imanaga pitched 173.1 innings in 2024, which exceeded his career high of 170 in 2019 and his average of 141.2 during his time in NPB.
Yuki Matsui
Matsui, a 28-year-old in his first MLB season, has been solid for the Padres in the regular season, though he had a bit of a down performance in September. In the final month, he was 0-0 with a 9.00 ERA in five appearances.
Matsui finished the regular season at 4-2 with a 3.73 earned-run mark. He gave up just 46 hits in 62.2 innings and struck out 69. He also walked 27 batters, but only five in the season’s last three months.
Seiya Suzuki
Suzuki continued his improved performance at the plate in September. After heating up in July and August, he averaged .329 in September with a .457 on-base percentage and .828 OPS.
He finished the season with a slash line of .283/.366/.848, 21 home runs, and 73 RBI.
Beginning in mid-August, Suzuki was primarily in the designated-hitter role, and he adapted well to it.
“It’s a little tougher to leave that at-bat,” manager Craig Counsell said of the downtime between plate appearances as a DH. “You spend maybe 45 minutes just thinking about, ‘What’s the first pitch coming to me my next at-bat?’ And that can get a little daunting. It sounds silly, but it can get a little daunting. [But] I think Seiya’s done a good job with it. I think he’s comfortable with that and can turn it off, so to speak.”
During his nine-season career in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), he was noted for making consistent contact and getting on base a lot. He had a .402 career on-base percentage in Japan and has yet to match that in MLB, but his .366 OPB in 2024 was his best since joining the Cubs in 2022.
Suzuki has two seasons remaining on a five-year, $85 million contract he signed prior to the 2022 season.
Masataka Yoshida
Yoshida fell off in September from his play in July and August, averaging just .225 with a .295 on-base mark and .633 OPS.
He finished the season with a slash line of .280/.349/.415. He hit 10 home runs and drove in 56 runs.
Signed to a five-year, $90 million contract before last season – which more than a few observers thought was an overpayment – Yoshida has had some good moments, but has yet to pay many dividends on the Red Sox’ investment.
Kenta Maeda
In the first season of a two-year, $24 million deal, Maeda was moved from a starting role to the bullpen in mid-July after not being effective.
September had been his best month statistically until he got a surprise start in the season’s final game against the woeful Chicago White Sox and allowed five runs in 4.2 innings. He was 0-1 with a 5.68 ERA in five September appearances.
After Maeda came close to pitching an immaculate inning in a loss to Baltimore on September 21, Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said, “Maybe he found something that clicked to where his next outing, which could be as early as tomorrow, it locks him in. The swings that he was getting were a good sign, and him being able to repeat it multiple innings was a good sign.
“That’s probably the best fastballs we’ve seen in a while,” Hinch added, “which will then bring his other stuff with it, and his command was really good. That was an important outing that nobody will really talk about because it was in the type of game it was, but it saved literally every other pitcher in the bullpen from having to pitch.”
Maeda finished the regular season with a 3-7 mark, 6.09 earned-run average, 1.38 WHIP, and .281 batting average against.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto
In the first year of a 12-year, $325 million contract, Yamamoto went on the Injured List on June 16 because of a rotator cuff strain. He made his first rehab start for AAA Oklahoma City on August 28, and then returned to the Dodgers with a start against the Cubs on September 10. In that game, he allowed just one run while striking out eight in four innings.
“Very impressive,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We’ll take this every start going forward. Fastball command, both sides of the plate. Hits the low dart, the split down below. Stealing a strike with the breaking ball. It was just really efficient. Yeah, it was really good.”
Yamamoto made three more starts in September and posted a 1-0 mark with a 3.38 earned-run average. After a five-inning stint against Colorado on the next-to-last day of the regular season, Roberts said, “Great tune-up for Yoshinobu,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “I thought the fastball was really good. Had life to it. I thought the command of it was really good. There were some near misses. As the game went on, the split got better. The curveball was good.”
He finished the regular season with a 7-2 record, 3.90 ERA, a fielding-independent pitching mark of 2.61, and a 1.11 WHIP. He averaged 10.5 strikeouts and 2.2 walks per nine innings. Opposing batters averaged just .229 against him with an on-base percentage of only .275.
Yu Darvish
After undergoing a minimally-invasive arthroscopic debridement in his pitching elbow during the offseason, Darvish had a reasonably good, if inconsistent April, and followed that with a very solid May. But he has had injury trouble and didn’t pitch from May 29 until returning to Padres on September 4.
During September, he was solid, with a 3-0 win/loss record and 3.55 ERA in five starts. He also became the first Japanese pitcher in MLB history to record at least 2000 strikeouts when he fanned Luis Robert of the White Sox on September 22.
“Very grateful,” Darvish said after crossing 2,000 strikeouts, via Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “It just kind of tells you how long I’ve been able to stay in the game. … That doesn’t happen by accident. I’m just really grateful for all the help and the support that I have gotten along the way.”
Darvish finished the regular season with a 7-3 record, 3.31 ERA, and 1.07 WHIP this season.
Kodai Senga
It’s been a lost season for Senga, though it might not be over.
He suffered a setback early in spring training when he was diagnosed with a moderate right posterior capsule strain and received a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection. He was eventually placed on the 60-day Injured List. He made his season debut until July 26 against Atlanta but left that game after 5.1 innings with a calf strain that resulted in another trip to the 60-day IL.
Senga was eligible to come off the IL on September 25. The Mets believed there was a chance he could have pitched in one of the final five regular-season games, as well as be available for the playoffs, but he did not pitch in the regular-season games.
In 2023, the first of a five-year, $75 million deal, Senga was named an All-Star and placed second in the National League Rookie of the Year voting, so the Mets had expected him to be a big part of the rotation as they tried to rebound from a disappointing 2023.
Senga needs to pitch at least 400 innings from 2023-2025 to be able to opt out of his deal at the end of the 2025 season. He is now all but certain not to reach that figure, with just 172 innings so far. He would have to throw 228 more, and no one threw more than 216 in 2023. Not reaching the 400 mark would mean that Senga would be under team control through at least 2027 at $15 million per season.
