Tracking the Dodgers superstar’s quest for the first 40-40 season in franchise history.

Shohei Ohtani already has 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases this season, but he is closing in on potentially the sixth 40-40 season in MLB history.

Through August 14, Ohtani has 37 home runs and 35 steals in 2024, with 41 games remaining this season. He’s on pace for 49 home runs and 47 steals.

The Dodgers record is 49 home runs, by Shawn Green in 2001. Ohtani’s career high is 46 home runs hit in 2021 with the Angels. He already surpassed his previous career best of 26 steals (also in 2021), swiping his 27th base this year on July 28.

Ohtani already has seven games in 2024 with at least one home run and one stolen base. That’s tied with Kirk Gibson in 1988 for the most such games in a season in Dodgers history. Gibson that year, in which he won National League MVP, finished with 25 home runs and 31 steals.

Ohtani was the first major league player this season to reach 20 home runs and 20 steals, doing so on July 7, in the Dodgers’ 91st game of the year. He was also the first this year to 30-30, and by doing so in the Dodgers’ 111th game of the season, tied Jose Canseco (1988) for the fourth-quickest to reach both 30 homers and 30 steals.

Canseco that season was the first player in major league history with a 40-40 season, and he’s since been joined by Barry Bonds (1996), Alex Rodríguez (1998), Alfonso Soriano (2006), and Ronald Acuña Jr. (2023).

The fastest any of that quintet got to both 40 homers and 40 steals was 148 team games, by Soriano.

No Dodger has ever hit 40 home runs and stolen 40 bases in the same season. Matt Kemp came the closest in 2011, finishing with 39 home runs and 40 steals in a 161-game season. Kemp was at Dodger Stadium on August 11 getting honored as part of alumni weekend, and had high praise for Ohtani.

“Oh he’s got that easy,” Kemp said of Ohtani’s chances of 40-40 this year. “He’ll beat me because he’s got 35 home runs and it’s not even September.”

Since Kemp said that, Ohtani has hit two more home runs in his next three games.

Ohtani, Kemp, and Raúl Mondesí (1997, 1999) are the only Dodgers with a 30-30 season.

Ohtani’s first milestone of 2024 came on April 21, when his 176th career home run broke Hideki Matsui’s record for the most home runs in the majors by a player 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 in Japan.

Two weeks later, a lower hurdle was cleared when Ohtani’s eighth home run of the season surpassed his manager Dave Roberts for the most career home runs in Dodgers history by a player 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 in Japan.

Ohtani’s 200th career home run came on July 13, and eight days later he hit his 30th home run of the season. By doing so in 100 team games, Ohtani reached 30 home runs the fifth-fastest in franchise history.

Ohtani already has the most stolen bases by a primary designated hitter in a season, surpassing the 31 steals by Paul Molitor in 1992.

The most stolen bases by a player with at least 45 home runs is 41, by Soriano in 2006.

The most home runs by a player with at least 30 steals is 49, by Larry Walker in 1997.

“I’m getting already immune to hearing about some new Shohei record, because it seems like every day there’s something different,” Roberts said in July. “I’m sure there’s going to be a lot more to come.”