Once they start to climb through the minor leagues, though, the triple beam becomes harder and harder to balance. Caglianone is still a promising power hitter and appears to have a bright future in MLB, but in terms of pitching, the most action he’s likely to see on the bump is during a lopsided blowout game. Smith might have to make a decision soon and focus on an area that will help him realize his big league dreams. They call Ohtani the Unicorn for a reason, as he is the only one who can balance the triple beam at the highest level.
TWP in KC?
Yet even Ohtani’s scale is penetrable and prone to (slight) imbalance. The one season that stands out as gaining serious consideration for the Cy Young Award—his 2022 season with the crosstown Los Angeles Angels—saw his offensive stats be rather pedestrian by his standards. An .875 OPS, with 34 home runs, 95 RBI, and notably, only 11 stolen bases, appear as an outlier from the massive offensive attack that he normally provides annually.
When compared with his pitching line that season, which included 15 wins, a 2.33 ERA, and 219 K’s over a career-high 166 IP and 28 starts, the contrast is clear. Considering the Angels finished with a 73–89 record that year, Ohtani’s fourth-place Cy Young finish could have, and probably should have, been higher up the list. The award went to Justin Verlander, his third.
A Dodger Ace Among Aces
After the first full month of the 2026 season, it’s not at all difficult to realize that Ohtani is on a mission as a pitcher. He is once again an artist on the mound, with his minuscule ERA of 0.60 through his first five starts. Ohtani is on the early Cy Young radar. Predictably, though, some imbalances are becoming evident in his overall game.
He is less aggressive on the basepaths, opting not to challenge pitchers and catchers in steal situations that, especially in 2024, he most certainly would have taken full advantage of. His OPS is back down to that “good but not great” level of 2022. This time, though, the Dodgers have more than enough depth to pick up Ohtani offensively. Let the man do his work on the mound, and the rest is a bonus, in effect, gravy…if that’s what we choose to call a borderline All-Star offensive output.
Final Thoughts on Ohtani and the Triple-Beam TWP Balance
There are undoubtedly some baseline accomplishments that voters look for in a Cy Young Award winner. A minimum of 30 starts is part of that foundation. If a two-way player is placing heavy emphasis on their offense, and the ongoing intricacies of hitting through 162 games, “the grind”, then something has to give. Twenty-eight starts, regardless of effectiveness, might move a frontrunner to third or fourth place.
A Cy Young winner is unequivocally the ace of the staff. Ohtani knows that, and he works tirelessly every day to earn that title. The cost, at least for us as fans, is the loss of a handful of his usual highlight-reel, tape-measure home runs or a steal of third base in a high-leverage, late-inning situation. At least for 2026, we will have to accept this. Ohtani has the National League Cy Young Award in his crosshairs.
