There are a surprising number of players with multiple years on a ballot

Player # years on ballot
Scherzer 7
Machado 6
de Grom 4
Ramirez 4
Goldschmidt 4
Soto 3
Correa 3

Bryce Harper gets votes in his second season of MMP balloting. He won in his other year. Now Ohtani takes his spot as the only player to win an MMP and not appear on a ballot in any other season.

The Guerreros join the Alous, Bonds and Fielders as the only father-son combos to get MMP votes. Griffey Sr never got a vote.

I hope Qufini is okay. He usually updates with the other placings but he didn't even vote.

NL MMP - Juan Soto
NL MM Pitcher - Zack Wheeler
AL MM Pitcher - I don't know. Is Ohtani a pitcher? Other pitchers have won this based partly on their bat.

I counted Ray as the AL MM Pitcher. Ohtani would not have won in a pitching comparison. I'd draw a distinction between being close but winning with a boost from batting and gaining well over half your value from batting. YMMV.

The bulk of that offense came on days when he wasn't in the lineup as a pitcher. I think that also should matter.

There is precedent. Bullet Joe Rogan won the 1922 and 1925 pitching MMP while playing a lot of outfield.

Should we run a separate pitcher MMP vote here in the comments?

I hope Qufini is okay. He usually updates with the other placings but he didn't even vote.

Hey DL. I saw this shout-out when I dropped by to read reactions to the recent Veterans' Committee selections. I am fine. However, I work in a hospital and, as you can imagine, the past few months have been pretty intense. I just haven't had the mental capacity to keep up with ballots and elections even though the 1890s are one of my favorite eras of baseball and something I researched before ever coming across BBTF and the Hall of Merit.

As a pitcher + pinch hitter, Ohtani batted .233/.351/.467 (.818 OPS) in 74 PAs. Go through some (overly) simple math...639 PAs with a .964 OPS = 5 WAR as a hitter, each 128 PAs at .964 OPS is 1 WAR, 74 PAs at .964 would be 0.58 WAR, at .818 OPS that's 0.5 WAR. Nice and round :) Let's be generous and use bWAR for pitching at 4.1 WAR, 4.6 WAR total for his pitching plus hitting as a pitcher; however, replacement level for hitting at pitcher is much lower, so let's be really generous and bump it to 5 WAR, and that is where I would baseline Ohtani's rank for MMPitcher. Mayor Blomberg's thought seems to be on the same page.

That would put Ohtani's rank for MMPitcher just outside the top 10 for me. In the AL it would be 4th.

A different question - should Red Faber be the MMPitcher in 1922 and Dolf Luque in 1925?

It's a good question for both years. I would say for 1922, yes, Faber would be MMPitcher, for 1925, Rogan's primary playing time appears to be pitcher with hitting mostly coming as a pitcher too. So since he was voted higher that year (and noting that his pitching was much better that year than 1922 was, also), I would say he'd keep it for 1925. One man's opinion.