What does Shohei Ohtani still have to achieve? A look at his high school goals list

Shohei Ohtani added the only major achievement to elude his already illustrious career on Wednesday night.

The two-way superstar won his first World Series title, helping the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees in five games. Because Ohtani suffered a shoulder injury late in Game 2, he didn't have his best performance at the plate in the Fall Classic. He went 2-for-19 (.105) at the plate and failed to hit a home run or an RBI.

Of course, Ohtani was probably the main reason the Dodgers were in the World Series in the first place. He became the first player in MLB history to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a regular season, making him the likely NL MVP winner. He also hit .364 with two home runs in the Dodgers' NLCS victory over the New York Mets.

At 30 years old, Ohtani has already built a strong reputation as one of the best players in MLB history. He will, of course, still have plenty of time to build his case, and he will return to the mound in 2025 after rehabilitating from elbow surgery he underwent in late 2023.

While Ohtani looks to expand his legacy, the future Hall of Famer mapped out his career while still in high school in Japan. In the list, Ohtani wrote down every goal he wants to achieve at every age. The list included professional and personal goals that could perhaps serve as a guide to what Ohtani still wants to accomplish in his career.

Here's a full look at Ohtani's goal list:

• Age 18: Join an MLB team
• Age 19: Proficient in English and achieve AAA
• Age 20: Called up to the majors, earning 1.5 billion JPY (equivalent to $13 million)
• Age 21: Starting rotation, 16 wins
• Age 22: Win the Cy Young Award
• Age 23: Member of the Japanese WBC team
• Age 24: Throw a no-hitter and achieve 25 wins
• Age 25: Throw the fastest pitch in the world at 175 km/h (or 108 mph).
• Age 26: Win the World Series and get married
• Age 27: Member of the Japanese WBC team and MVP
• Age 28: 1st son is born
• Age 29: 2. Throw a no-hitter
• Age 30: Most wins achieved by a Japanese pitcher
• Age 31: The first daughter is born
• Age 32: Win the 2nd World Series
• Age 33: 2nd son is born
• Age 34: Win the 3rd World Series
• Age 35: Member of the Japanese WBC team
• Age 36: Break the strikeout record?
• Age 37: 1st son starts baseball
• Age 38: Statistics are falling, people are starting to think about retirement
• Age 39: Choose to retire at the end of next season
• Age 40: Thrown a no-hitter in my very last game
• Age 41: Return to Japan
• Age 42: Introduce the American system to Japan?

So far, Ohtani has achieved six of these points on the list. He made his MLB debut in 2018 and scored another goal while earning $30 million in arbitration with the Los Angeles Angels in 2023. He was named to the 2023 Japan World Baseball Classic team and won with his two great skills, helping his home country beat the United States in the final.

It would still be a few years before Ohtani won his first World Series. He predicted he would win it in 2020 as a 26-year-old. However, he was right that he would win the World Series within a year of his marriage when he married Japanese basketball player Mamiko Tanaka before the 2024 offseason.

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Although most of Ohtani's records came at the plate or on the basepaths, many of his individual goals were focused on the mound. In high school, he gained fame for his pitching skills, throwing the fastest pitch ever for a Japanese high school student at 99 miles per hour.

As Ohtani prepares to return to the mound in 2025, some of these pitching goals appear achievable, while others may be a little out of reach. His career high in wins is 15, which he achieved in 2022. So 16+ wins in a season seems feasible. But 25 wins in a season is probably unlikely, as former Athletics pitcher Bob Welch was the last pitcher to reach that number, in 1990.

Throwing a pitch at 108 miles per hour is also probably unlikely. During the 2023 World Baseball Classic, he threw a pitch at 102 miles per hour, which was the fastest pitch he ever recorded. To illustrate, the fastest pitch ever recorded in the modern era comes from a 105.8 mph fastball from Aroldis Chapman in 2010. Ohtani's former Angels teammate Ben Joyce is one of the few to even come close came and fired a 105.5 mph throw in September.

Ohtani almost certainly won't set the strikeout record either, especially if he plans to retire at 40. He has recorded 608 strikeouts in his career, 5,000 fewer than Nolan Ryan's record (5,714). Ryan played for an MLB record 27 years.

However, some of the other pitching targets seem plausible. If Ohtani averaged about nine wins per season over the next decade, he would break Hideo Nomo's record for most wins all-time by a Japanese pitcher (123). He finished fourth in AL Cy Young voting in 2022, showing he has the potential to potentially win the award. Ohtani has only pitched one complete-game shutout in his career, but he allowed just one hit in this start. So he's already within range of throwing a no-hitter.

Shohei Ohtani joins the MLB on Fox crew to talk about the Dodgers' 2024 World Series victory

Of course, the other professional goals Ohtani had on his list were winning a second and third World Series title. He appeared to change those goals after the Dodgers' World Series victory on Wednesday.

“He won a championship in his first year (with the Dodgers),” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told reporters at Ohtani. “He says, ‘That’s easy. We'll just do it nine more times.'”

As Friedman suggests, Ohtani has nine seasons left on the 10-year, $700 million contract he signed with the Dodgers last offseason. If Ohtani miraculously wins a title in every season remaining on his contract, it won't matter if he accomplishes each of the goals on his list. He would almost certainly be considered the greatest player in baseball history if he won ten straight titles.

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