Everyone is in agreement what Shohei Ohtani is doing is unprecedented. Sure, Babe Ruth used to strike out players too before he changed the game with his bat, but Ohtani has rapidly outgrown the comparison. You can’t really directly compare him to another baseball player in the past or present simply because no one has pitched so well and hit mashed homers in such a prolific manner — and on the same timeline.

Ruth pitched at a high level, but during the years when he was a full-time pitcher, he was only appearing at the plate on days that he was starting. 

Shohei Ohtani is like the culmination of the work of a mad scientist who just emerged from his basement laboratory in Cooperstown after decades. He’s so good, you can’t just compare him to a single player — not even Babe Ruth. You have to come up with a crazy amalgam that sounds like something straight out of folklore to make casual baseball fans understand his greatness at an elemental level. Just take a look at this ridiculous series of facts Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated put together that underscores Ohtani’s exploits.

If you had to distill the amazement of Ohtani to one sentence, it would be this: he hits the ball harder than Juan Soto (92.5–92.3 mph exit velocity), throws harder than Yu Darvish (95.4–94.8 mph), and runs faster than Randy Arozarena (28.9 -28.7 sprint speed).

But why stop there? Let’s move outside of baseball’s data-driven neighborhood and bring this one into another realm. If you have never seen Shohei Ohtani play before — or had not cared about baseball at all — just imagine that what he’s doing in baseball is theoretically equivalent to what Shaquille O’Neal could have done in his time in the NBA — except with the lights-out shooting of Stephen Curry. Yes, that just sounded crazy, but Ohtani’s doing insane stuff out there as well.

It’s a popular barbershop take: what if Shaq had Curry’s accuracy from deep? Folks, you are not going to see that kind of dude play basketball in this lifetime. We have to wait for the next phase of human evolution before someone like that probably comes around. But in Shohei Ohtani, at least we have a unicorn to correlate him to.

As of this writing, Shohei Ohtani has 40 homers. That’s the most by anyone in the majors this season. He also owns an 8-1 record to go with a 2.79 ERA, 10.8 K/9, and 0.72 HR/9. Ohtani isn’t just doing this for novelty. He’s performing both as a pitcher and a hitter at an elite, top-percentile level, and it’s breaking people’s minds. 

Shaq was unstoppable at his peak. He was a backboard-breaking killing machine with his nightmarish mix of strength, size, and athleticism but he couldn’t make a basket from the perimeter to save his life. That was all fine, though, because Shaq not having an outside shot meant that everything was in order. Conversely, Stephen Curry doesn’t play above the rim. The Golden State Warriors sniper punishes defenses way out from it. Widely regarded as the greatest shooter to ever walk on this planet, Curry definitely will look out of place in a slam dunk contest.

In Shohei Ohtani, there’s no playing field where he’d appear like someone who showed up to an occasion in the wrong outfit. If the Angels want offense, he could give it to them. When the Halos want someone to strike people out, Ohtani can get the job done.

If Shohei Ohtani wants to do anything he damn wants, the Angels will gladly roll out the red carpet for him.