Shohei Ohtani is doing things on the baseball field that make your jaw drop, and through 39 games in 2025, he’s batting .308 with 12 homers, 10 stolen bases, and a 1.051 OPS—numbers that scream superstar. But when Alex Rodriguez was asked point-blank by Zach Gelb on The Zach Gelb Show if Ohtani is the best player he’s ever seen, A-Rod didn’t hesitate to crown someone else: Barry Bonds. And he made a compelling case that’s got fans on both sides of the debate fired up.
Rodriguez didn’t hold back on his admiration for Bonds, calling him “head and shoulders above everyone, almost like Michael Jordan—just a class of his own.” He pointed to Bonds’ pedigree, noting that the Giants legend is baseball royalty with Willie Mays as his godfather and Bobby Bonds as his dad. “Barry Bonds was so good it’s hard to articulate how good this guy was,” Rodriguez said. It’s high praise from someone who played against Bonds at his peak and knows what greatness looks like.
But A-Rod wasn’t dismissing Ohtani entirely—he’s just as captivated by the Dodgers’ two-way star as the rest of us. He acknowledged that Bonds never pitched or threw 100 mph (though he jokingly added that Bonds would probably claim he could). Rodriguez called Ohtani “the most unique, the most special player” he’s ever seen, especially when factoring in his pitching. “When he’s able to pitch as well, then it only becomes a class of two—Shohei and Babe Ruth,” Rodriguez said. Ohtani’s not back on the mound yet in 2025, but when he is, with his career 3.01 ERA and 31.2% strikeout rate, that two-way magic will be on full display again.
Let’s break down the Bonds-Ohtani comparison. Through his first eight MLB seasons, Ohtani has 237 homers, edging out Bonds’ 222 in the same span (though Bonds finished with 762, the all-time record). Both won three MVP awards in those years—Bonds eventually nabbed seven. Ohtani started his MLB career at 23, two years later than Bonds, which makes his numbers even more impressive. On the basepaths, Bonds was a menace early on, racking up 280 steals in his first eight seasons compared to Ohtani’s 155. But here’s the kicker: last year, Ohtani became the only player in MLB history to post a 50-50 season—50 homers and 50 steals—something Bonds never did, especially since Ohtani wasn’t pitching and could run wild.
Ohtani’s got two big edges over Bonds: he’s a two-way player, and he’s never been linked to performance-enhancing drugs, unlike Bonds, whose legacy carries that asterisk for many fans. Bonds’ raw hitting prowess was unmatched, but Ohtani’s ability to dominate as both a hitter and pitcher puts him in a category of his own. Rodriguez’s take highlights the tension in this debate—Bonds was a pure hitter who redefined the game, while Ohtani’s rewriting what’s possible as a dual-threat star. For Dodgers fans watching Ohtani mash in 2025, the GOAT conversation is heating up, and it’s only a matter of time before he’s back on the mound adding fuel to the fire. Who do you think takes the crown?
