Shohei Ohtani arrived in the major leagues cloaked in intrigue. Hailed as the “Japanese Babe Ruth”—no pressure—he signed with the Los Angeles Angels intending to do something that seemed impossible: thrive simultaneously as a starting pitcher and an everyday batter, a feat hardly attempted, let alone accomplished, in a century.

Scouts predicted the 23-year-old Ohtani would quickly give up hitting and focus his energies on the mound. A dismal spring training even raised questions about whether he should open the season in the minor leagues. It suddenly wasn’t clear he was all that good as a hitter or pitcher.

Nobody questions Ohtani anymore. He entered Thursday with a .325 batting average, five home runs and a .963 OPS. As a pitcher, he owns a 3.58 ERA in six outings, racking up 43 strikeouts in 32 2/3 innings, or nearly 12 per nine.

Essentially, take all of the best skills of the sport’s most elite players, wrap them up into one freakish athlete, and you end up with Ohtani. Veteran Logan Morrison, whose Minnesota Twins whiffed 11 times in 6 1/3 frames against Ohtani last Sunday, put it this way:

“With what he does on the mound and with the bat, he’s probably the best player in the world.”