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Shohei Ohtani bats for the Los Angeles Dodgers during an April 2026 game at Dodger Stadium.
Shohei Ohtani’s quest to win a fourth straight MVP award is off to a hot start, and the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was rewarded on April 15th when he was named the top hitter in baseball through the first three weeks of the season.
MLB.com’s Hitter Power Rankings ranks the ten best hitters in the MLB, and Ohtani claimed the top spot in their first in-season edition.
It helps that Ohtani is currently amidst a 48-game on-base streak, the longest active streak in the MLB. The Dodgers DH and pitcher has hit five home runs and has a .910 OPS. For most players, that’s a great start to the season, but for Ohtani, it somehow feels underwhelming. After three straight seasons with an OPS over 1.000 and at least 44 home runs, Ohtani’s .910 OPS, 40-HR pace is less than what the Dodgers were expecting.
Then again, those are still impressive numbers, especially for a guy who also owns a 0.50 ERA across 18 innings of work on the mound. If there were a Pitcher Power Rankings, Ohtani would probably rank somewhere near the top of that list as well.
Ohtani Leads Fellow Former MVPs Aaron Judge, Mike Trout
Shohei Ohtani is in first place, but right behind him is the reigning AL MVP, Aaron Judge, who was ranked third. Similarly to Ohtani, Judge’s .918 OPS feels too low, considering he’s one-dotted in the past four seasons. Judge is tied for the lead in home runs with eight through 19 games, putting him on pace for 64 longballs, which would be a career high.
Mike Trout, Ohtani’s former teammate in Anaheim, was not in the top ten, but did receive votes. Trout is also off to a scorching hot start, with seven home runs, 16 RBI, and a 1.010 OPS. After a rough 2025 season and an injury-plagued stretch from 2021-2024, Trout appears to be back, at least for now. He’s even stolen two bases.
Feared Sluggers and Young Newcomers Fill Out the Top Ten
The rest of the power rankings were made up of a combination of known, feared sluggers and younger newcomers.
Houston Astros DH Yordan Alvarez was ranked in second place, between Ohtani and Judge. With seven home runs, six doubles, and a 1.214 OPS, Alvarez has been on fire to start the season.
Fellow DH Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies ranked fifth. One of the most reliable power bats in baseball, Schwarber’s numbers are right where you’d expect them to be. Six home runs, .556 SLG, .936 OPS.
Ranked behind him, in eighth place, was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The Blue Jays first baseman has just one home run this season, but is slashing .323/.436/.431, impressive all-around numbers.
Guys like Alvaraez, Schwarber, and Guerrero Jr. are exactly the names you’d expect to see in a Hitters Power Rankings. A few names you probably would not have guessed would be Jordan Walker, Ben Rice, and Andy Pages.
Walker, the former No. 1 prospect in all of baseball, struggled in his early stints with the Cardinals. Now, the right fielder is suddenly thriving, tied with Aaron Judge for the MLB lead in home runs, and doing it while also hitting for a .319 batting average.
Rice has the third-best OPS in all of baseball, at 1.166. The Yankees’ first baseman has a 65.7% hard-hit rate, third best in all of baseball.
Pages, too, has broken out in a big way for the Dodgers. His 20 RBI leads all of baseball, while his 1.148 OPS ranks fourth.
Levi Coovert Levi Coovert is an experienced sports journalist and writer. He studied Journalism and Media Production at the Murrow School of Communications in Pullman, Washington, where he was also the Editor-in-Chief (and former Sports Editor) of the Daily Evergreen Newspaper. He previously wrote for the Vista in San Diego, and has been published in local newspapers including the Lewiston Tribune. Raised 30 minutes south of Seattle, he considers himself a lifelong fan of the Seahawks and Mariners. More about Levi Coovert
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