Shohei Ohtani is nothing if not generous. When Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly agreed to give Ohtani his number 17 jersey last December, Ohtani gifted Kelly’s wife with a new Porsche.
Former Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough, who was recently hired to be the Miami Marlins’ new manager, revealed Ohtani gave a parting gift to him after the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in a five-game World Series victory.
“There was a really cool picture that someone had drawn of him and I, doing that head bump at first base,” McCullough told Foul Territory on Tuesday. “This was after the regular season, and I asked him, would he mind signing that for me. He was gracious enough to do that. That’s something that I’ll keep. It’s a cool picture.”
In his first season in Ohtani made a habit of tapping helmets with McCullough every time he reached first base. As it happened, that turned out to be a lot of helmet-taps.
Ohtani led the National League with 411 total bases — a Los Angeles Dodgers record and the 16th-highest mark ever in MLB — en route to winning the NL MVP Award in November.
Ohtani joined Frank Robinson as the only players to win an MVP award in both the American and National Leagues.
Ohtani signed a landmark 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers in Dec. 2023. He became the first player in MLB history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in the same season in 2024.
In addition to his historic 50-50 season, Ohtani led the National League in on-base percentage (.390), slugging (.646), OPS+ (190), RBIs (130), runs (134) and Wins Above Replacement (9.2, according to Baseball Reference). No full-time DH had ever compiled 9 WAR in a single season.
McCullough, 44, began coaching after a four-year playing career (2002-2005) as a minor league catcher in the Cleveland Guardians organization. He joined the Dodgers’ player development staff under former farm director Gabe Kapler nearly a decade ago.
Now the assistant general manager under Peter Bendix in Miami, Kapler is part of the group that hired McCullough to become the Marlins’ 17th manager in November.
The Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in a five-game World Series in October to claim the eighth championship in franchise history.
