Manager: Ohtani unhappy he lost MVP

Shohei Ohtani had a historic season in 2022, but it wasn’t enough for him to earn American League MVP honors. The Angels’ two-way star finished second to Yankees slugger Aaron Judge.

And Ohtani apparently wasn’t happy about that.

“I know he’s determined to have an even better year from last year. He wasn’t happy about not winning the MVP, I can tell you that,” Angels manager Phil Nevin told MLB Network Radio last week. “But he wants to win, first and foremost.”

While the Angels struggled to a 73-89 record and failed again to reach the postseason, Ohtani put up historic numbers.

The 28-year-old finished fourth in the AL in homers (34), seventh in RBIs (95), 10th in OPS (.875) and sixth in OPS+ (145). He also had his best pitching season, going 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA in 28 starts while leading the AL in strikeouts per nine innings (11.9) and finishing third in total strikeouts (219).

He was the first player with 30 homers and 10 wins in the same season in MLB history, though his OPS and OPS+ were both lower in 2022 than in 2021, when he finished at .965 and 157 while winning the AL MVP.

Last season, Judge set an AL record for home runs with 62 and led the majors in RBIs (131), on-base percentage (.425), slugging (.686), OPS (1.111), OPS+ (211) and total bases (391).

In the end, the 30-year-old Judge earned 28 of the 30 first-place votes, while Ohtani got the other two.

Now that the Angels have added Tyler Anderson, Gio Urshela and Hunter Renfroe, among other moves this offseason, Ohtani is said to be more concerned with looking ahead than back.

“He’s excited about the pieces we’ve added,” Nevin said. “And he’s really excited to get started with what we have lying ahead of us.”

Ohtani and the Angels recently agreed to a one-year, $30 million deal to avoid arbitration. The Post’s Jon Heyman wrote that Ohtani is poised to become MLB’s first $500 million man this offseason as he hits free agency for the first time.

Adding a second MVP trophy to his accolades wouldn’t hurt his chances.