Shohei Ohtani usually sits at the end of the Los Angeles Dodgers bench, closest to home plate, far from first-base coach Clayton McCullough, who likes to lean against the railing on the other side. But Ohtani regularly walks the length of the Dodger Stadium dugout, tablet in hand, and taps McCullough on the back. “Look at this,” Ohtani says, and then he reveals his latest discovery: a new pattern to help him determine when an opponent might attempt a pickoff or start his throw. A shift of his weight. A tilt of his head. A flick of his glove. Anything to provide the slightest edge for another stolen base.

These interactions have happened countless times as Ohtani marched toward 50 stolen bases this season, a milestone he reached by stealing third base in the first inning Thursday against the Miami Marlins. For McCullough, they capture Ohtani’s intuition and reveal how much he cares about the nuances of baserunning.

They also tell what makes him unique.

Designated hitters are traditionally among the slowest players on a team. And before Ohtani, no full-time DH had ever stolen 40 bases, let alone 50. The previous leader was Paul Molitor, who stole 31 in 1992, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Ohtani, who five innings later became the first 50/50 player in baseball history, has tapped into another realm of singularity by taking advantage of a circumstance afforded only to those who merely hit. While his teammates defend, Ohtani often plots his next steal.

“It’s not an accident that he got here,” said McCullough, who runs the Dodgers’ baserunning program. “This guy puts in a lot of work.”

Ohtani entered this season with a career-high 26 stolen bases, set in 2021. He has 31 over the past two years. And yet Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says Ohtani has been “on a mission” to get to 40/40, and possibly even 50/50, going back to spring training, when he regularly did intensive speed workouts with strength coach Travis Smith. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to shoulder the burden of playing as a two-way player, given elbow surgery that required a full season of rehabilitation, seemed to limit his focus.

“There’s nothing to salvage because you’re not pitching,” Roberts said. “So I think this was the year he was aiming for offensive production.”

Ohtani set a standard for himself offensively in 2023, when he slashed .304/.412/.654 with 44 homers and 95 RBIs in 134 games — before a re-tear of his ulnar collateral ligament and a subsequent oblique strain kept him from playing past Sept. 3. His slash line has dipped slightly this year, to .288/.372/.609. His home run percentage, which is on track for a career-high of 51, has changed little. But he’s stealing bases like never before.

What stands out to McCullough isn’t the volume so much as the efficiency. Ohtani has converted 92.6 percent of his stolen base attempts, nearly 25 percentage points higher than his rate from 2021-23. Of the 133 40+ steal seasons since 2000, only Ichiro Suzuki (95.7 percent in 2006), Jimmy Rollins (94 percent in 2008), Carlos Beltran (93.3 percent in 2004) and Jacoby Ellsbury (92.9 percent in 2013) have been more efficient. Ohtani has stolen 27 bases in a row, the last time he was caught stealing coming on July 22. McCullough remembered it well and blamed himself. Blake Snell, a lefty, was throwing to Patrick Bailey, who was considered one of the game’s better pitchers, but McCullough wanted Ohtani to push the envelope early. It took a perfect throw and tap to narrowly miss him.

“When you’re going to have a lot of stolen base attempts, there’s going to be times where guys are going to blame you,” McCullough said. “You’ve got to be OK with that. And I think once he gets used to it, here, you get off to a pretty good start and you get a couple of them, it’s like you trust what you see and it’s go-go-go. And I think his confidence just grew.”

The Dodgers immediately gave Ohtani free rein to steal whenever he wanted, but the pace didn’t pick up until halfway through the season. Ohtani finished June with 16 stolen bases, then collected 27 in July and August. He added seven more in the first 17 games of September. The surge coincided with his move to the leadoff position, but it also spanned a period in which the Dodgers were without key offensive players like Mookie Betts and Max Muncy for extended periods.

Ohtani, who could become the first full-time DH to win an MVP Award if he can beat out New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, is on track to become only the third player to rank at least second in the majors in both home runs and stolen bases in the same season — behind Honus Wagner and Ty Cobb, stars from more than a century ago. Ohtani reached the 40/40 mark at least 21 games faster than anyone else and became the first player to even reach 43/43 before September began.

New rules that increased bases, introduced a pitch clock and limited pitcher decoupling starting in 2023 have undoubtedly fostered a more favorable stolen-base environment. The league accounted for 3,503 total bases in 2023, the most since 1987 and 1,017 more than the year before; the 2024 season already has the second-most since 2000. But only Elly De La Cruz (64) has stolen more bases than Ohtani this season, despite many more who are faster. Ohtani’s average sprint speed (28.1 feet per second) is well above average, but it still ranks 154th among the 556 players with at least 10 chances.

“It’s more than just speed,” McCullough said. “He puts a lot of work into the preparation aspect of it.”

Before each series, McCullough pores over video of the opposing relievers and scheduled starters from the stretch position, hoping to spot patterns his baserunners can exploit. He’ll often find that Ohtani has done his own studying and will notice cues he didn’t. Ohtani’s experience as a pitcher, McCullough believes, has given him a big advantage in that area.

“He’s got a really good eye for things,” McCullough said. “And then I think in real time, he sees things and he just acts.”