Ohtani to Dodgers: 700 Million Reasons
The largest contract in sports history belongs to Shohei Ohtani, who finally made his big decision in free agency.
The big news has arrived. Ohtani has chosen to stay in Los Angeles, but switch from red to blue. He’s not staying with the Angels, he’s going up the freeway to the Dodgers.
For any people doubting his contract amount with the latest injury, well no matter. He secured a $700 million bag. But it’s been a crazy week of rumors and discussion, so this is a recap of what went down.
The Initial Build Up: Winter Meetings
Sun Dec 3 - Wed Dec 6
Nothing but rumors had swirled since free agency begun after the World Series ended in early November.
Jeff Passan, the only reporter to trust, had said during November that "If visits between Ohtani and a team are reported publicly, it will be held against the team, so the circles will be tiny and tight." It was a move, whether by Ohtani’s agent or himself, to ensure privacy and not let the media run wild with stories.
At Major League Baseball’s annual winter meetings started off the week, where teams discuss business and trades, there was hope that Ohtani news may happen.
The only notable development was Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confirming that the team had recently met with Ohtani at Dodger Stadium, that he thought it went well, and that “clearly, Shohei is our top priority.” He was the first person to openly speak about meeting with Ohtani, and the Dodgers General manager later said he was surprised it was commented on and declined to say anything himself.
There was growing frustration by some U.S. baseball reporters as most of the teams remained tight-lipped. An article by Buster Olney for ESPN, entitled Shohei Ohtani's secretive free agency is a missed opportunity for him and MLB, came out on Tuesday Dec 5. He questined the secrecy, calling the free agency “unnecessarily joyless” and deeming it as “completely antithetical to the way Ohtani competes, the way he loves his craft.”
Olney says this could have been a celebration of baseball, but negotiations are treated like a secret spy swap. “Just imagine how much better served we all would have been if this window was handled progressively, rather than with paranoia.” 🙄
Ken Rosenthal, who in the past has been considered a respected reporter, showed his true colors on Thursday in a video segment. He said the privacy around the free agency process had “gone to a level of absurdity that's just not necessary."
“Now I know Ohtani comes from Japan, it’s a different culture. I get all that and respect it, of course,” Rosenthal said. His next sentence began with: “But at the same time…” and tried to rationalize it as fans being shortchanged. One fan reply translated Rosenthal’s sentiments as, “I respect his culture but I don’t understand it and don’t care to try.”
The top reply read, “Respectfully, the only people I’ve seen complaining about this are those in the media pretending that they’re complaining on behalf of the fans. Just man up and concede it’s just bad for your business as a journalist don’t use us as a crutch for your grievances.”
Meanwhile, the Japanese reporters in the U.S. who cover Ohtani were just waiting to hear if they would need to move from Los Angeles to the destination of a new team.
The Toronto Flight Hysteria
Friday Dec 5
On Friday morning, Jon Morosi of MLB Network tweeted, “Shohei Ohtani’s decision is imminent, possibly as early as today.” For context, Morosi was the first to the report of Aaron Judge signing last year. So while true Ohtani fans know you can’t believe any rumors and reports, there were still people who gave this more attention.
An even bigger conspiracy theory fueled more of the discourse that day around a chartered flight going from Anaheim to Toronto on Friday, and it was the same type of plane that Ohtani usually charters. Jomboy broke it down.
The hype grew with flight tracking and more rumors swirling Friday afternoon, including a Canadian opera singer tweeting: “SOURCE: Yusei Kikuchi reserves entire upscale sushi restaurant near Rogers Centre for tonight. Reservation made for 50+ people. Make of it what you will…” – which was aptly met with a top reply joking, “This was a surprise party for his wife… thanks a lot.”
Even Drake got in on the action, posting a picture to his Instagram Stories of wearing his Ohtani jersey from this year’s All-Star game.
Morosi also said around 4pm that Ohtani was indeed heading to Toronto, continuing to stir the pot of mania. But an hour later it was Bob Nightengale, the baseball reporter who is often the butt of jokes, who put the delusion to rest. Several other reporters confirmed after, and the idea of the hypothetical flight was done.
The person who was actually on the plane was instead Canadian entrepreneur and Shark Tank judge Robert Herjavec.
Later that night, Morosi issued an apology. “Today, I posted reporting that included inaccurate information that Shohei Ohtani was traveling to Toronto,” he tweeted. “I regret the mistake and apologize to baseball fans.”
Blue Jays fans were not happy with him. One fan reply to his tweet read, “Apology accepted, Jon. Unfortunately your words have consequences and your passport has been flagged by the Canadian government.”
Other fans in Toronto blamed the Drake curse.
Dodgers Decision
Saturday Dec 9
The announcement timing and rollout was a surprise, but the decision was not.
On Saturday – around noon in Southern California, 3pm Eastern, and 5am in Japan – Ohtani posted to his Instagram.
It was a picture of the Dodgers logo and a caption that said he had chosen them as his next team. (Though even for this huge announcement, it was not even a hi-res version of the logo, funnily enough)
“The six years I spent with the Angels will remain etched in my heart forever,” Ohtani said as he thanked the Anaheim org and fans, too.
Ohtani ended by noting, “There are some things that cannot be conveyed in writing, so I would like to talk more about this again at a later press conference.”
Meanwhile, Ken Rosenthal, who just mere days before had criticized Ohtani’s approach, wrote for The Athletic after the deal: “Shohei Ohtani, the sport’s biggest star and most transcendent figure, is the reason the game is creating more buzz than at any point in recent years, and maybe decades.”
What happened to him being bad for the sport and his process being ridiculous, Ken?
The way Ohtani went about this announcement was certainly notable. Bob Nightengale wrote an article for USA Today entitled, Shohei Ohtani free agency hysteria brought out the worst in MLB media. We can do better. “In our breathless quest to be first on where Ohtani would sign his free agent contract, it was comical that Ohtani broke his own news Saturday on his Instagram account.”
“We baseball writers have disgraced ourselves, becoming an embarrassment to the journalism community,” Nightengale said.
“The way Ohtani conducted his free agency should be praised, not criticized. My God, it was so refreshing not having Ohtani and Balelo leak a single thing, and actually announce their own signing, complete with the contract figures. Let’s stop kidding ourselves into believing we are a conduit to fans in the offseason, delivering information on their favorite teams and favorite players.”
Highest Paid Athlete In Sports
Quickly after the initial announcement, Jeff Passan had the contract details.
Ohtani signed with the Dodgers for 10 years and $700 million.
It is the largest guaranteed contract in sports history, topping Lionel Messi’s $674 million in 2017 in socccer and Patrick Mahomes’ $450 million in the NFL.
Mahomes tweeted about the deal, “Bro like what! 🤣🤣🤣 Congrats to him!”
In baseball alone, it breaks Mike Trout’s record $426.5 million deal and breaks the highest average annual value (AAV) of Max Scherzer’s record $43.3 million/year.
When Ohtani’s latest injury and surgery happened at the end of the season, there was a big question around how much money he lost not being fully healthy for free agency.
Earlier in December, it had been reported Ohtani’s contract would go well above the $500 million mark – which some were even doubting with the injury – and could even go up to $600 million. But $700 million was not even being tossed around.
With a 10 year contract, this averages out to $70 million a year, which is unprecedented. But it was later reported by Passan that there are significant deferrals – meaning the money per year will be spread out over time, even past when Ohtani finishes his 10 years of playing under the contract.
It’s a move ownerships try to do so they have more financial flexibility each year, given the “luxury tax” if teams go over a certain amount. The idea in this case was reportedly Ohtani’s, so the Dodgers could stay competitive and build a great team, though that may partially be spin from Ohtani’s agent even if it’s true.
In Tom Verducci’s article for Sports Illustrated, he reported the following details:
It was Ohtani who told his agent, Nez Balelo, to craft a deal with so much deferred money that it would reduce the Dodgers’ hit toward their competitive tax rate… Ohtani suggested he defer more than half the $700 million at below-market interest rates. The math still needs to be done by the commissioner’s office and the players association, but the annual present-day value against the CBT could be about $50 million at the lowest, but probably higher, according to a rival club executive.
The contract numbers solve two needs: Balelo and Ohtani get the bragging rights of leapfrogging Lionel Messi for the largest contract signed by an athlete, and the Dodgers get a player for about $50 million a year who can return as much as $25 million a year in ancillary income and brand value, according to the owner of a rival team.
For now, we’ll still have to wait for the final breakdown.
While some criticized whether Ohtani can stay healthy, the Dodgers have a pretty good idea of what’s going on. When Ohtani had his recent elbow repair surgery, it was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache – who also is the Dodgers’ team physician.
Others criticized the contract amount, saying it was a ridiculous amount of money and he’s not worth it. But to recognize Ohtani’s value, you have to look at the draw of him as an international superstar. The amount of fans he puts in seats, the amount of merchandise he sells, the amount of Japanese ads that go in the stadium. It’s an endless amount to calculate, no matter what.
Some more sane people understood the vision. “Brains will explode over the seven hundred million dollars, but this was more than a baseball decision. This was a business decision. Shohei Ohtani’s marketing power in LA is going to be a money printing machine for the Dodgers,” Jared Carrabis tweeted.
“While impossible to say how much money the franchise will make with Ohtani, 29, wearing Dodger blue, it's the sort of number that left ownership pledging it would not be outbid for him in free agency,” Jeff Passan wrote in his article for ESPN about the signing. “Ohtani is baseball's lone crossover star, someone whose unique talents have transcended a sport with waning cultural resonance. He is on the level of LeBron, Messi and Mahomes, athletes for whom a mononym suffices.”
As far as getting to that number, Verducci’s article also noted about the Toronto frenzy: “On Friday, reports broke that Ohtani’s signing was imminent and that he was headed to Toronto to sign with the Blue Jays. The report was completely erroneous. The Dodgers didn’t know that. They held meetings Friday night with an air of worry. The rumors were likely false, they decided, but they still created angst among the Los Angeles executives.”
This may have driven up the price to reach that final $700 million mark. Curiously, the man who was on the plane to Toronto (Robert Herjavec) is also a client to CAA - Ohtani's agency. Make of that what you will, but even if Ohtani’s agent used that as leverage, they used the hype of the free agency game and got the job done.
Why The Dodgers - For Both Sides
The Dodgers had scouted Ohtani back in high school and wanted to sign him as a teenager – but only as a pitcher, like other teams who showed interest. Ohtani decided to first play in Japan as a two-way player.
When Ohtani first came over to the U.S. in 2016, the National League did not have a Designated Hitter at that time (where a batter hits in the lineup for a pitcher, which used to only be in the American League). This supposedly impacted their ability to get Ohtani at that time, as he would not have been able to hit on days he didn’t pitch since he was not playing another position in the field otherwise.
The move to get Ohtani right now has been years in the making for the Dodgers, especially in the past couple of offseasons. They shed payroll and stayed away from big free agent signings recently to ensure they had the budget to go all in on Ohtani.
The Dodgers have had great success in the regular season over the past decade, with 10 division titles over the past 11 years. However, the playoffs have been a different story. They have only won a single World Series in that time, and it was during the shortened 2020 pandemic season – leading to even that ring not being taken seriously by some fans.
With this consistent letdown in the playoffs, the Dodgers needed to change the narrative. It was the move they needed to make. Now, Ohtani joins All-Star players Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman at the top of the Dodgers lineup. The pitching rotation is a question mark, and they won’t have Ohtani helping with that until 2025 with his latest surgery, but the Dodgers will certainly address it in some way. They are reportedly still even in on Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
For Ohtani, the Dodgers make all the logical sense in the world. For one, you go from a losing, messy, and cheap organization with the Angels to a reliable, professional, and high-spending organization with the Dodgers.
Plus, Ohtani gets to stay in Southern California – he may even keep his same house – while being able to boost his World Series and take on a new stage. It’s both comfort and challenge at the same time, fitting for Ohtani.
No Longer An Angel
Saturday Dec 9
Within three hours of the announcement Saturday, Ohtani’s big player banner outside of Angel Stadium was already in the process of being removed.
And quickly, it was gone. Sam Blum, who covers the Angels for The Athletic and took these photos, wrote an article about the scene at Angel Stadium that afternoon where fans came over and expressed sadness about Ohtani leaving.
The team store, which was still filled with Ohtani items, was also open at the stadium as people bought remaining items.
Certain fans showed less sympathy – burning his jersey (apparently one they just bought, with the tag still on) or calling him a traitor.
Ohtani had many friends on the Angels like Patrick Sandoval or newcomers Mickey Moniak and Logan O’Hoppe. But the teammate who is perhaps the saddest to hear the news is fellow GOAT Mike Trout, who is not going anywhere.
Final Notes
🎙️ We also covered the announcement on the Ohtani Comes To America podcast, with initial reactions to the signing. (Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts)
🇯🇵 And as included in the podcast cover art, we can’t forget about Ohtani’s translator Ippei now heading to the Dodgers as well.
1️⃣7️⃣ Joe Kelly, relief pitcher, had worn #17 for the Dodgers before. Since the team recently re-signed him for another year, he was asked about giving up the number. It’s not a serious question, since obviously he will, but his reply showed a sense of humor.
🤥 Random sidenote - Timothée Chalamet was on Japanese TV the other day and said Ohtani is one of his favorite players in the States. However, that may have just him or his PR team pandering, as he pronounced Ohtani’s first name “Sho-hi” instead of “Sho-hey” when he said it. Chalamet also said he didn’t know if Ohtani plays on Japan’s national team, so it’s safe to say he didn’t see the WBC this year.
Now that Ohtani’s a Dodger, don’t be surprised to see other Hollywood “fans” appear.
🎨 Thank you to 冷し中華 (hiyachu) - @hiyashichuka17 for drawing our email banner design and sign-up page illustration.
🔵 And now a new chapter begins…
