Sure, Shohei Ohtani may have had the greatest season statistically in the history of organized baseball. He won a unanimous MVP. He established the 50-50 club — 50 homers and 50 stolen bases. His Los Angeles Dodgers may have won the World Series.
But where’s the wokeness in that? And why reward him when you could reward a WNBA player that isn’t named Caitlin Clark?
In what’s the most transparent pick from Time in a long while, A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces was the magazine’s Athlete of the Year. While the Aces did win the championship and Wilson is the team’s best player and the league’s MVP, this also wasn’t even her best statistical season or anything so massive that it warranted the pick.
WNBA star A’ja Wilson is TIME’s Athlete of the Year https://t.co/PuL1wnkUzH pic.twitter.com/mt0o71L207
— TIME (@TIME) December 9, 2025
She also won a gold medal at the Olympic Games, although it’s worth noting that if the United States doesn’t win a gold medal in basketball, that’s a much bigger story than if it does win a gold medal.
Ohtani, meanwhile, created the 50-50 club — if you’re the first person to do something in a sport that’s been around since the 19th century, you’d think that alone would be reason to make you everyone’s athlete of the year — and may have not only logged the greatest game of all time in baseball but did it in the playoffs.
3 home runs. 6 innings pitched, 10 strikeouts. In an NLCS close out game.
Greatest baseball player ever. It’s not real pic.twitter.com/Qxv3rC1HDu
— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) October 18, 2025
Entering today…
Only 12 hitters had ever hit 3 homers in a postseason game.
Only 26 pitchers had ever recorded 10+ strikeouts, 2 or less hits and no runs in a postseason start.
Shohei Ohtani just did both in the same game. pic.twitter.com/Bs1LvmnQr4
— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) October 18, 2025
Yes, not only did he hit three home runs, he threw for 10 strikeouts in six innings pitched, as well. But, hey, slightly more people watched the WNBA this season, Time noted, and Wilson wasn’t Caitlin Clark!
No, seriously, that does actually seem to be Time’s reasoning:
Her rocket-ship run comes at an opportune time. In 2024, Caitlin Clark’s rookie season helped the WNBA hit milestone TV and attendance figures. But Clark’s emergence created a toxic, racially divisive narrative that she was almost singularly responsible for salvaging a league whose foundation had been built by a mostly Black player base. This storyline bothered Wilson, who in 2024 earned her third WNBA MVP award and her second Olympic gold medal in Paris, where she was named tournament MVP. “It wasn’t a hit at me, because I’m going to do me regardless,” she says. “I’m going to win this MVP, I’ll win a gold medal, y’all can’t shake my résumé. It was more so, let’s not lose the recipe. Let’s not lose the history. It was erased for a minute. And I don’t like that. Because we have tons of women that have been through the grimiest of grimy things to get the league where it is today.”
The 2025 WNBA campaign provided a measure of vindication for many players. Despite Clark’s missing most of the season with an injury—something Wilson, to be clear, did not cheer—viewership for both the regular season and postseason was up 5% to 6% on a per-game average across ESPN networks. “Sometimes you need a proof in the pudding,” says Wilson. “The biggest thing for us, and why I was so happy, is that we continue to rise to the occasion. This was just a matter of time for us to really bloom and blossom. Because we have been invested in each other and our craft for a very long time. It was just like, ‘They’re going to pay attention.’”
This only makes sense in two ways. First, Ohtani felt like he owed his former translator a bit of a sop and convinced Time to pass him over so that he could make it up on the long odds for A’ja Wilson to get named Athlete of the Year. Or, second, Time wanted people on social media to notice how fatuous the award was.
I didn’t see Ohtani’s translator’s betting slips of late, so I’m going with No. 2, because notice it they did:
https://t.co/KMPVRk8GWT pic.twitter.com/kBadhmDkTz
— Rhodes Rants (@rhodesrants) December 9, 2025
I’m not a Dodgers fan but hasn’t anyone at Time heard of Shohei Ohtani? https://t.co/5yjUteQ8Pm
— Physics Geek (@physicsgeek) December 10, 2025
Tell me why this shouldn’t be Ohtani? pic.twitter.com/kbZFqJOkI1
— Lance D (@LanceLovesHeels) December 10, 2025
Shohei Ohtani had one of the greatest sporting years of any human in the history of our species.
But identity
— Honus 💾 (@HonusWenger) December 12, 2025
Shohei Ohtani won the NL MVP, Hank Aaron Award & Edgar Martinez DH Award 😳 In the playoffs he was the NLCS MVP: 3 HRs, pitched 6 shutout innings, 10 Ks. In the World Series: .333 avg, 3 HRs, 5 RBIs, 6 runs, Game 3 he reached base 9x. But pandering = more clicks 🤷🏻♂️
— Chris Lorenzo (@chrisalorenzo1) December 9, 2025
Do you ever wonder why people don’t trust the media? It’s because of stuff like this: They’re so determined to make the WNBA happen that they picked the best player who had a decent season that most people haven’t heard of over a guy who had the best season in Major League Baseball history and was a unanimous MVP. So long as it’s not Caitlin Clark (she’s toxic, after all!), it’s fine.
This is wokeness in action, and in the most painfully obvious way. Does anyone at Time actually watch sports?
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