Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani ranks last in MLB in totally unexpected stat — but here's why it doesn't matter

Shohei Ohtani doesn't rank last in stats very often.

The Los Angeles Dodgers' two-way superstar has a case as the best baseball player ever. He's much more likely to do something that no one has done in MLB history than he is to be in last place on any particular leaderboard.

Except on Tuesday, a ranking started to circulate on social media that shows Ohtani last in MLB in average sprint speed. And it's true.

The Baseball Savant leaderboard does indeed confirm that so far this season, Ohtani is running slower than anyone in the sport.

He's averaging 21.2 feet per second. That's slower than noted slowpokes Josh Naylor and Alejandro Kirk. 

Much of the bottom of this list is catchers or first basemen.

Ohtani doesn't fit in at all.

This is a guy who had the first 50-homer, 50-steal season in MLB history. It's hard to exaggerate how fast Ohtani is and how special an athlete he has proven himself to be over and over.

It seems impossible that he could rank last in sprint speed.

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Why this actually doesn't matter

It's early, and there's more to it than that.

Ohtani has had what Baseball Savant refers to as 6 competitive runs. That's not many at all, and they aren't all created equal.

MLB players often take the foot off the gas on grounders that they know they'll be out on, for example.

Ohtani, with his first pitching start coming up on Tuesday night, is especially careful. He'll put on the afterburners when they're called for. But he doesn't have enough incentive to go full blast on a play that has no chance of being a success.

Wait for Ohtani to get a chance to get striding into full flight. He's still plenty fast. There's nothing for the Dodgers to be worried about.

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