In the stifling, smoky microclimate of the Yankee Stadium visitors’ clubhouse Wednesday night, where the air was humid with champagne, Shohei Ohtani declared his intentions for the future.

“Nine more,” he yelled at Andrew Friedman, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, meaning a title for each of the remaining years on Ohtani’s behemoth Dodgers contract.

“In his first year he won a championship,” Friedman said. “So he’s like, ‘This is easy.’ ”

Certainly this particular ambition seems a little lofty, even for Ohtani, who has redefined baseball’s parameters for shooting high.

Then again, his first year on a winning team yielded everything he and the Dodgers could have hoped for: Fifty homers and stolen bases, an almost guaranteed National League MVP award, millions in additional ad revenue and a World Series title. And do not forget: This season also gave Ohtani a chance to rehabilitate his throwing elbow after surgery last year.

“I’m honored to be able to be part of a season where we played the longest, and to be able to get to know this team,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “My first year and experience winning a World Series has been a tremendous honor.”

The 2024 season cemented Ohtani’s already secure place as one of the more mind-boggling talents of this century.

After signing the biggest contract in North American sports history, and being expected to deliver an MVP and a championship in his first year, he is a world champion on his way to a third MVP award. He proved that in a year when he isn’t also pitching, he can simply … contend for a Triple Crown: His regular season line included a .310 batting average, 54 homers, 59 stolen bases and a 1.036 OPS.

He also proved he can rise to October occasions, at least when healthy. His final October numbers – .230 with three homers and a .767 OPS – are well below his regular-season norms. And he did not hit like himself while playing the last three games of the World Series with a left shoulder subluxation, an injury Manager Dave Roberts later said meant Ohtani – who claimed the effects were minimal in part to convince the Yankees to pitch him like a threat – was “playing with one arm.”

When Freddie Freeman raised the World Series MVP trophy onstage after Game 5, Ohtani was hovering in an unfamiliar place – the background. But he did not seem to mind. He did not need to be the World Series’ biggest hero this year. The guy needs something left to shoot for.

“There’s a legitimate argument that he’s the greatest player that’s ever played the game,” Friedman said. “All this does is further that.”

But what comes next for Ohtani, now 30, the playoff mountain climbed and another MVP on its way?

The obvious answer is a higher-stakes return to pitching on a team that has yet to use him in that role. Because Ohtani did not pitch this season, the Dodgers have not yet had to navigate the unique challenges of having an elite offensive player who also pitches every few days.

They have not, for example, had to decide how many days Ohtani would need between starts, how they will handle his offensive duties on days when he doesn’t pitch, and how offensive expectations will change to maximize his contributions on the mound.

So far the safest bet for how the Dodgers will handle Ohtani seems to be “with care.” While Ohtani was throwing off a mound in late September, Los Angeles did not see any need to push him into postseason duty, even as injuries and fatigue reduced the potency of key starters and relievers.

“The big thing for us was figuring out – because absent the baseball calendar and what’s happening and us playing in October, that would have been the time in his rehab progression to start on live (batting practices), kind of like January for healthy pitchers who are getting ready for spring training,” Friedman said.

“So the question was, OK, as we’re playing these intense games, do we layer that part on right now? Do we wait? It was much more the question than him actually pitching in these games.”

Care for their massive investment will probably dictate how the Dodgers use Ohtani in the rotation next year as much as anything. In 86 career starts, Ohtani has a 3.01 ERA with more than 11 strikeouts per nine innings, ace-level stuff. If he can start regularly, he will help them.

But the Dodgers were careful with his Japanese colleague, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, in his first year in MLB, keeping him on the Japanese every-six-days start schedule whenever possible, not wanting to push him beyond familiar bounds. If they could afford to give Yamamoto extra rest, at least during the regular season, perhaps the Dodgers will offer the same to Ohtani.

But his status will also depend on how he looks while returning to normal pitching workloads, which test even traditional starters in their first years back from elbow surgery. Los Angeles will also be evaluating the readiness of several starters in similar situations: Tyler Glasnow, for example, was shut down for the season in September after spraining his elbow. Glasnow has a history of annual breakdowns – could the Dodgers start him slow to ensure he will be available in October? If they do, could they do the same with Ohtani? How will Dustin May and others recover from their years away?

All of those questions will determine exactly how Ohtani fits into their rotation – or, perhaps, how it coalesces around him – if he returns to full strength. His ability to multitask will dictate how pitching full-time will alter his impact on the Dodgers’ lineup.

For years, the sense around Ohtani is that if he did not have to dedicate time and energy to pitching, he would be one of the game’s best hitters. When it became clear he would not be able to pitch in his first year as a Dodger, for example, Japanese baseball writers who watched him in Japan’s NPB said matter-of-factly they expected him to win the Triple Crown. The notion seemed ludicrous. He nearly did it.

But that Ohtani’s offensive production grew when he did not have to think about pitching does raise questions about how pitching might affect his offensive production.

A safe bet, according to Dodgers coaches and common sense, is he won’t be able to steal 50-plus bases again. Stealing requires energy and risks injury, as Ohtani learned when he hurt his shoulder in Game 2 of the World Series. If he’s pitching, he probably will not be as aggressive on the bases.

But while some speculate that Ohtani might see some offensive regression if he has to pitch again, his hitting coach, Aaron Bates, says he’s not certain that rejoining the rotation will force Ohtani to step back. The workouts Ohtani does to keep his legs strong enough to pitch, Bates said, keep his legs in peak condition to support his uniquely forceful swing that is dependent on them.

“That leg strength that he has is so phenomenal, and I think a lot of it is because he has to pitch. He has to build up to pitch,” Bates said. “ … I don’t anticipate the physical toll taking time or a toll on his body or taking away from anything. He doesn’t overswing now. He’s maintained the same routine, he said, as when he pitches, hitting right now. So it’s not like he’s done something more hitting-wise this year that he’s got to spend more time on it.”

The idea of Ohtani hitting like he did this year while also being a top-line starting pitcher is, well, absurd. The only thing more absurd would be winning 10 titles in 10 years as a Dodger. As usual, he seems to think he can do that, too.