Major League Baseball is officially a month into the offseason and the highly anticipated Shohei Ohtani signing has finally happened. As of Saturday the 9th of December, the two-way player, two-time MVP is a Los Angeles Dodger.
Shohei Ohtani is a Japanese baseball player who debuted in 2018 for the Los Angeles Angels. He is one of the best players ever, being a pitcher and a designated hitter. Some of his accolades include 2x MVP, 3x All-Star, Rookie of the Year, 2x Silver Slugger, 3x Edgar Martínez Award, World Baseball Classic Champion, and World Baseball Classic MVP.
The days leading up to the 9th of December were extremely stressful for Dodgers fans with rumors flying and Dave Robert’s admitting to meeting with Ohtani, ignoring the unwritten rule that you never share who you met with, no matter how obvious. On Friday all chaos broke out, when MLB Network’s Jon Morosi tweeted that Ohtani was on a plane to Toronto, to sign with the Blue Jays. This led to an all-out Twitter freakout, with other reliable reporters saying he was in Southern California. Videos(some old) were shared of Ohtani, and every video had people saying that the location was Southern California, with others arguing it was in Toronto. It turns out that Ohtani was not in Toronto, and by night all Dodgers fans could breathe again.
In case he didn’t have enough, Shohei Ohtani now has another accomplishment, the richest deal in North American sports history by almost $200 million dollars. He signed a 10 year, $700 million dollar contract, but it isn’t as straightforward as it normally would be($70 million dollars a year). Ohtani is going to make $2 million dollars a year for his entire time with the Dodgers, and will put the rest off until the 10 years following his contract. Ohtani will make $680 million dollars, or $68 million a year from 2034-2043. The reason behind this is so the Dodgers have enough money to go sign other free agents, as Ohtani alone will not win a World Series. Now, instead of being over the luxury tax, they can avoid having to pay that fee. MLB does count this as more than $2 million dollars a year though, so that this doesn’t become a common thing. It is estimated that MLB will count this as $46 million dollars toward the Dodger’s annual salary cap. Even though the Dodgers will have to pay Ohtani a lot of money when he isn’t playing, it is much better than paying it now. The money is worth more now than it will be then due to inflation, and now the Dodgers can go get the players they need.
Shohei Ohtani is arguably one of the best players in Major League Baseball. He has a career batting average of .274 and averages 32.8 homeruns a year (excluding the shortened 2020 season). He also has a career ERA of 3.01, making him one of the best hitters and pitchers in the league. While he won’t pitch in 2024 due to an injury, he will be a huge offensive asset, and will pitch from 2025 onwards, hopefully leading the Dodgers to many World Series titles.
