Shohei Ohtani is going to (staying in) Los Angeles. Sho-time is taking his talents to (continuing to display his talents in) Hollywood.
In a move that everyone saw coming, Shohei Ohtani is a Dodger. It was funny when people thought he was going to be a Blue Jay, though. Tracking a flight from LA to Toronto that ended up just being Robert from Shark Tank is an all-time hilarious free agency story. He was always going to stay on the west coast. Nice try, Canada.
This whole thing has already been covered to death, so I’m not going to go super deep into it, but this is a sports blog, so I felt it appropriate to give my quick thoughts on this, because it’s among the biggest free agencies ever across sports (we’re talking Lebron “The Decision” level here).
The Dodgers are loaded. Betts, Freeman, and Ohtani are a ridiculous big 3 in baseball. All 3 have an MVP since 2018, and all 3 are consistently in the running for it. Them teaming up should be the baseball equivalent of a super team. Baseball can be unpredictable, but with what they’ve put together, barring horrendous injury luck, they have no excuse not to go to (and win) a few World Series championships.
$700 million is a metric fuckton of money, but the way Ohtani is willing to defer his deal ($2 million a year for 10 years, $68 million a year for 10 years after that), makes this an incredible deal for the Dodgers in terms of being competitive while he’s there. They’ll have money to spend, and with the time value of money (yeah I learned about that in college, no biggie), the real value of that contract is much lower than what that initial $700 million slaps you in the face with. I’m sure someone’s done the calculations on the real value; I’m not going to bother. It’s a “team-first” move by Ohtani, but it is still an obscene amount of money.
The fact that they have all these guys and still have a good amount of money to spend is crazy. Ohtani’s AAV (technically $70 million, despite not really being that with the structure), is higher than multiple franchises’ entire payroll last season. The lack of a salary cap in baseball is going to come under more scrutiny with that huge contract hitting the news and getting so much coverage. The parity in the MLB should be seriously called into question (although, savvier teams like the Rays have been able to compete despite lower payrolls). That being said, I’m a fan of a big market team. Why can’t the Red Sox show some balls and put their money where it needs to go to be a top team again? Mookie Betts should still be on the team.
The value in the contract goes beyond on-field play, however. The Dodgers brand is going to explode with the Japanese and global markets, even though it’s already a top 3 brand in baseball (with Yankees and Red Sox). I’m not sure if it’s possible to usurp the Yankees, but with this signing, the Dodger’s will likely be Japan’s team (and probably all of Asia). As long as Ohtani is producing for that team, they should see a noticeable growth in value over the years. That (along with being a multi-generational two-way superstar) is why Shohei can command $700 million.
Will Ohtani be the same level as he was after getting his second Tommy John surgery? I don’t know; I’m not a doctor. I write a sports blog that’s not even monetized. The Dodgers are certainly betting a lot of money that he’s going to be great, though. If not, this contract could look horrible in retrospect. It’s genius if it works out, however.
Will owners see this contract and be scared and try to legislate this kind of deal out of the game, or will they love it and all start deferring money so they can pay less in real value? It obviously depends on the situation and will be impacted by how this Ohtani deal ages. It could be fantastic for the Dodgers, or it could make the Bobby Bonilla disaster contract look like the deal of the century (look that up if you don’t know about Bobby Bonilla. It’s hilarious).
The funniest part about this whole thing is that people, including (and especially) the MLB, are acting like he’s moving to LA.
He has played six seasons already in Los Angeles. I know they play in Anaheim, but they’re a few miles down the road and they’re called the Los Angeles Angels. It’s actually a hilarious level of disrespect that they’re blatantly acting like the Angels are some small market team and he’s finally getting to the big city. Weird that the league is just tossing one of their own teams to the side like this and pretending they don’t exist. If Ohtani were going from the Kansas City Royals to the Angels, they’d probably use the same exact post saying he’s headed to Hollywood, just with Ohtani in an Angels jersey instead of a Dodgers jersey. But in comparison to the Dodgers, the Angels might as well play in Reno as far as the MLB is concerned. They’re acting like it’s Lebron leaving Cleveland for Miami. Or like Lebron leaving Cleveland for LA (sorry Cleveland).
Anyway, with this deal done, and even despite Ohtani not being available to pitch while he recovers from his surgery, the Dodgers should be favorites coming out of the National League, and should be awesome to watch with their exciting talent.
That being said, D-Backs in 3 in the NLDS.