Bunch Of (Belated) Thoughts On Shohei Ohtani, The Gift That Keeps On Giving For The Dodgers
Emptying the notebook on the biggest story in baseball and the storylines that keep on coming...
Happy Holidays!
Sports never rests, especially this time of year, and one storyline in particular keeps dominating the headlines.
Shohei Ohtani.
Sure, the ink is now dry on the record-breaking, history-making $700 million, 10-year contract Ohtani signed with the Dodgers earlier this month. Old news, some may argue.
However, that simply isn’t the case.
It seems as though a day can’t go by without new, eye-popping details emerging about the exact breakdown of that mind-blowing deal.
We also can’t seemingly finish a day without Ohtani doing his best impression of Santa Claus and giving Dodgers fans a slew of elite gifts.
As if landing the best player on the planet wasn’t enough.
From playing a crucial role in the Dodgers signing elite RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto to gifting Joe Kelly’s wife a shiny new Porsche, Ohtani is quite literally the gift that keeps on giving for LA.
And there is no doubt Ohtani’s mere presence in Hollywood will yield yet more benefits for the Dodgers before spring training gets underway.
To that end, there is still a bunch of stuff to talk about and dive into as it pertains to Ohtani and the Dodgers. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do here.
Think of the following as an unloading of my inner-conscious. I’ve stored a lot of these thoughts up ever since this MLB landscape-altering deal went down, and I’m going to fire them out in a hurry right now.
Let’s dive right in…
Welcome To The Shohei Ohtani Thoughts Smorgasbord!
Okay, let’s dive into every thought I’ve had on Shohei Ohtani taking his talents to Hollywood to pair with the juggernaut Dodgers, who are now even more formidable…
Okay, as I said at the top, I wanted to get this out as soon as the deal went down but life happens and you have to adapt. So some of these early musings are going to be a little bit of yesterday’s news, but your patience will be rewarded. I promise.
I was as stunned as everybody else on the planet when Shohei Ohtani announced he was signing with the Dodgers. I wasn’t surprised with the destination because, let’s face it, LA always made the most sense for Ohtani and that seemed to be the consensus pick all along. I’ll get to the whole Blue Jays fiasco shortly. Anyway, what shocked absolutely everyone was the nature of the contract itself. $700 million over 10 years. The largest and richest contract in North American sports history. Ohtani’s blockbuster payday beat out Mike Trout, Ohtani’s former Angels teammate, who held the previous record with a 12-year, $426.5 million contract.
Of course, those basic financials proved to be just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the shock factor. It emerged days later that Ohtani had agreed to include “unprecedented deferrals” in his contract. That translated to the two-way superstar deferring $680 million of his $700 million contract with the Dodgers, which equates to $68 million being deferred a year. In other words, or numbers in this case, Ohtani will earn $2 million a year while LA will take a $46 million hit against the league’s competitive balance tax yearly. Look, I’m useless with numbers and that’s the only downside about covering this story, but the long and short of it is Ohtani will take home $2 million a year through 2033 and the rest will then be paid to him from 2034 to 2043, according to The Athletic.
I have a couple of takeaways from this portion of the Ohtani signing. All reports suggested that it was Ohtani, and not the Dodgers, who insisted on these historic deferrals being included in the contract. I find that compelling because it just hammers home the point that Ohtani really is all about winning. And that’s why LA was always the most logical landing spot for the phenom, because the Dodgers are an absolute juggernaut built to win now and in the future. For all the nonsensical talk about what Ohtani’s priorities were heading into Free Agency, and whether or not a return to the Angels was feasible, we had the answers all along. Ohtani cares about one thing only, and that’s winning championships. Therefore, he was never going to go back to a franchise that made losing look like a newfound art form. Ohtani’s best chance to win is with the Dodgers, and he’s increased those odds substantially by giving the front office the luxury to still go out and sign other top talent thanks to those deferrals. Secondly, a lot has been made about the fact that Ohtani will earn just $2 million per year for the length of his contract thanks to those deferrals, but that isn’t quite true. It is estimated that Ohtani earned around $35 million a year in endorsement years while with the Angels, and that will now double or triple given that he’s part of one of the marquee franchises in all of sports. For all of his god-like talents on the baseball diamond, Ohtani has proved time and time again that he’s also incredibly intelligent off the field. He had the foresight to structure a deal that doesn’t put the Dodgers in luxury tax jail, allowing them to keep adding high-end talent year on year, while resting in the knowledge that he will still take home a boatload of cash throughout the duration of his contract thanks to endorsements and other perks that will naturally come with being the biggest baseball star in one of the biggest markets on the planet. Plus, by the time the rest of the owed money is due, Shohei will probably be living somewhere where he won’t have to pay tax on it. Smart.
Another couple of significant details that further pushes the Ohtani wants to win at all costs narrative is the fact his contract does not feature a traditional no-trade clause, per ESPN. Instead, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Ohtani could escape from the 10-year deal if either president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman or controlling owner Mark Walters leave their roles with the team. Given that both Friedman and Walters have helped to spearhead what has been a sustained period of dominance by this storied franchise, you can understand why Ohtani would want to tie his own destiny to those two individuals. Again, it all boils down to winning at all costs. If either Friedman or Walters, or both, leave at any point during the course of the next ten years, then Ohtani has ensured he has a ready-made escape plan drawn up if the franchise hits the rocks. Every single tiny detail involved in this deal is geared towards winning. Because that’s the only thing that matters to Ohtani.
We’ve already seen Ohtani’s sacrifice pay off when it comes to the deferrals. With the Dodgers only having to pay their brand new shiny superstar $2 million in 2024 and beyond, they were able to go out and flex their financial might by signing the second most talented free agent available: uber-talented RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Yamamoto, who has never pitched in North America, signed a 12-year, $325 million contract with LA, providing a massive upgrade to a starting rotation that was an absolute hot mess in 2023. Yamamoto was the second biggest prize available in free agency, right behind Ohtani, and the Dodgers now have two absolute elite arms in the rotation for the next decade plus. Of course, Ohtani won’t be able to pitch in 2024, but Yamamoto will be able to lead that rotation until Ohtani can pitch again in 2025. As will Tyler Glasnow. Again, because of the way Ohtani’s contract is structured, LA was able to trade for Glasnow from the Rays and then give him a five-year, $136.5 million extension. Sure, not having Ohtani on the mound in 2024 stinks, but a one-two punch of Yamamoto and Glasnow is still pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good as the great Larry David would say.
The Dodgers will be able to bolster their roster further this offseason if they so wish too. And they should. There are still holes on that team, believe it or not, and they will need addressing if another embarrassing early exit in the postseason is to be avoided. They need to upgrade defensively at shortstop, and I’d love to see LA trade for Willy Adames from the Brewers. I wrote about that potential trade here, and Adames would tick a lot of boxes for the Dodgers. He can hit for power and for average, and he’s an excellent, excellent defender at short. This just makes too much sense, and Milwaukee is reportedly shopping Adames too.
I read somewhere the other day that the Dodgers are now out of the running for future star free agent stars after their gargantuan outlay this offseason. That’s simply not true. Okay, sure, I don’t think Juan Soto will end up in LA next winter, but Ohtani’s calculated decision to defer the majority of his contract will allow his team to be aggressive in free agency and make notable additions each year for the next decade. That was the whole thinking behind this unique and very rare bit of contract minutiae. LA has the best player on the planet, yet still have the means to go out and sign other stars to maximize its win-now window. The Dodgers will also now become the destination for other stars because everyone will want to go and play with Ohtani. That’s just how it works.
The Dodgers are building the next Evil Empire, the next formidable Death Star and I think that’s going to be a really cool and fun story to follow. I know not everyone will agree, but we are all seduced by star power, whether we like to admit it or not. The NBA is solid gold proof of that. There’s just something about a vast collection of heavyweights on one team that gets the juices flowing, and you can bet any amount of money that MLB is loving how this offseason has transpired. One of the league’s most storied franchises in a huge market now boasts a stupidly talented five-headed monster in Shohei Ohtani-Mookie Betts-Freddie Freeman-Yoshinobu Yamamoto-Tyler Glasnow, and they will be must-watch TV every single day. The viewing numbers will be huge, and you know fans of other teams will hate watch the Dodgers which will just add to the overall intrigue. Plus, there’s no doubt that ownership are looking to create the baseball version of the Lakers. What do I mean by that? Well, it is celebrity row at Lakers games and you can now expect the same at Dodgers games on a more consistent basis. Larry David? Yep. Jack Nicholson? Perhaps. Leonardo DiCaprio? Maybe, just maybe. With so much star power on the field, Dodger Stadium is now going to play host to the upper-echelons of Hollywood royalty on a nightly basis. It is going to be the greatest show in town.
Now, does assembling one of the greatest and most absurd rosters we’ve seen translate to instant success? No, of course not. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman both enjoyed MVP caliber seasons in 2023, yet the Dodgers got swept by the upstart Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS last year. They’ve won just one World Series since 1988 despite consistently having one of the biggest payrolls and a boatload of talent over the past decade or so. Signing Ohtani doesn’t guarantee jack shit in terms of winning. However, this is going to be one hell of a fun team to watch. And I bet they will have at least one championship to show off by the time Ohtani’s contract is up.