Shohei Ohtani

Shohei Ohtani has been my MLBoyfriend 6 times. Given that he's quite possibly baseball's GOAT and he's very handsome, that number seems low. 

To be honest, Shohei's batting stats last week were not that impressive with just a .238 average and .685 OPS. He pitched one game last week, and it was a good one (more on that later) giving him decent, but not amazing pitching stats. In 6.0 innings pitched he gave up 1 walk, 2 hits and 1 earned run while striking out 10. He had a 1.50 ERA and 0.67 WHIP for the week.

With such meh stats, how did Shohei Ohtani win the MLBoyfriend title? By achieving a very specific statistical feat that will probably never be duplicated. I'll let the baseball nerds (said with nothing but love) at Made The Cut explain:

For those who don't watch the video, I'll try to explain. As of the making of this video, Ohtani had gotten on base in 48 consecutive games (which would go up to 51 consecutive games by the end of the week). He had also pitched 32 2/3 innings without giving up an earned run. According to OptaSTATS: 

...Since the earned run became an official stat in 1913, Ohtani and Babe Ruth are the only Major League players with a 30-plus-game on-base streak and a 30-plus-inning streak without allowing an earned run at any point in their careers.

Ohtani, unlike Ruth, had these two streaks going at the same time. As two-way players become more and more rare in baseball. It is highly unlikely anyone will do that again.

Congratulations, Shohei Ohtani! You are my MLBoyfriend again. Keep setting records--no matter how obscure--and you have a good chance to keep winning the honor.

Gunnar Henderson

As I was looking over the list of the best players last week, Gunnar Henderson's name caught my eye. I went to see how long it's been since he was named my MLBoyfriend, and was shocked to discover he never has never been. Although he's only been in the majors for 4 years, he has definitely made a big name for himself.

I'm sure there have been many weeks when Henderson has been in the running. I looked up the times he has won the American League Player of the Week award to see who took the award that week. On June 12, 2023, he lost to Corbin Carroll--interestingly, both of them would go on to win the Rookie of the Year award in their respective leagues that year. Henderson lost the MLBoyfriend title to the National League Player of the Week, Kyle Schwarber, on September 9, 2024.

Henderson was very impressive last week. He had a .286 batting average, 1.196 OPS with 1 double, 1 triple and 4 home runs. He scored 7 runs and batted in 7. He also stole base twice. I couldn't deny him the MLBoyfriend award any longer.

Congratulations, Gunnar Henderson! You are my MLBoyfreind of the Week.

Derek Jeter

Last week, I said I was going to start casting a wider net for MLBoyfriends. This week, I'm naming my first Retro-MLBoyfriend. Absolutely no one will be surprised to discover that Derek Jeter wins the title.

Jeter's last season was 2014--two years before MLBoyfriend was started. It is a fluke of timing that he was never even eligible for the award. 

I won't try to summarize Jeter's career here. Fortunately, the Yankees made an excellent highlight reel to celebrate his retirement.

I will point out a few of Jeter's more impressive statistics. Over the course of his career he had a .310 batting average and .817 OPS. Those are both really impressive given they cover 15 years and speak to his remarkable consistency at the plate. He famously has 3465 career hits--only five players in MLB history have more.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that Derek achieved all this while also being model-handsome.

FWIW, Jeter looks even better at 51 than he did at 21 during his rookie year.

The decision to name Derek Jeter as my Retro-MLBoyfriend seems so obvious that I don't really have more to say about it. I do, however, have a few more cute pics of him to post.

Congratulations, Derek Jeter! You are the first ever Retro-MLBoyfriend.