Shohei Ohtani made sure he didn’t leave anyone out.
The newly anointed four-time MVP celebrated his third consecutive honor and second straight with the Dodgers with an awkward yet humorous celebration with his wife, Mamiko Tanaka, and dog, Decoy.
Moments after ex-Yankees legend and free-agent coach Don Mattingly announced Ohtani had won the award for being the NL’s top player, MLB Network showed Ohtani sitting on a couch with Decoy sandwiched between he and his former basketball star wife.
Ohtani, 31, leaned over to give his wife a hug while simultaneously lowering his head to give his dog a big kiss.
The trio then separated without Ohtani also giving his wife a smooch, which some social media folks found rather amusing.
“Decoy was the one who got a kiss from Ohtani after winning MVP 🤣🐶,” X account @HyeseongKimMuse posted Thursday night.
Ohtani is a rather private individual, as the world only learned last year of the married couple.
The two have made more public appearances together over the past year-plus since he joined the Dodgers, and they welcomed a baby girl this April.
Decoy, though, is a social media star.
Ohtani has posted plenty of photos of his good boy on Instagram, and made sure he enjoyed the victory tour after the 2024 World Series triumph over the Yankees.
During last year’s celebration after Ohtani won his first NL MVP award, Decoy actually ran off the couch while Ohtani and Tanaka fist bumped.
The dog even got to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before a 2024 Dodgers game.
Regardless of who got the kiss, the Ohtani family had plenty to celebrate as the two-way phenom continues to make his case for the greatest baseball player who has ever lived.
The former Angel now finished in the top two in MVP voting in five straight years, only finishing runner-up in 2022 to Yankees superstar Aaron Judge.
As fate would have it, that year marked the first of Judge’s three MVPs, with the star slugger grabbing his second straight AL MVP on Thursday night.
Ohtani earned NL MVP honors over Kyle Schwarber and Juan Soto, in that order, after hitting 55 homers, driving in 102 runs and slashing .282/.392/.622 with an NL-best 1.014 OPS.
He went 1-1 with 2.87 ERA in 14 starts in his return from Tommy John surgery.
Ohtani authored one of the greatest single-game performances in MLB history in Game 4 of the NLCS when he struck out 10 in six scoreless innings while hitting three homers.
The Japanese phenom added another classic showing in Game 3 of the World Series, a 6-5 win over the Blue Jays in 18 innings, when he reached base in all nine plate appearances while going 4-for-4 with four extra-base hits, including two homers.
The Dodgers are now 2-for-2 in World Series triumphs with Ohtani on the roster and he’s 2-for-2 in NL MVP voting since they sides agreed to a 10-year, $700 million deal before the 2024 season.
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