As the Texas Rangers celebrated their first World Series victory in franchise history on November 1, the league's attention soon turned toward something else. All eyes were on Shohei Ohtani, the superstar free agent who's revolutionized baseball with his dual-threat hitting and pitching. Would Ohtani re-sign with the Los Angeles Angels, the only team he's known since entering the majors in 2018? Or would he join a new squad, one that's maybe a bit closer to a championship contender?
A bidding war between several teams broke out over the past month, but the dust has cleared, and Ohtani has made his choice. He's headed across town to join the Los Angeles Dodgers — signing a record-setting contract in the process.
Ohtani announced his decision on Instagram, and Jeff Passan has been filling in the financial details. Ohtani's deal will be worth $700 million over ten years. That's enough to make it the largest contract in sports history in terms of overall value.
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Passan also noted that Ohtani asked the Dodgers to structure his deal in a way that will defer most of his money toward later in the contract and possibly even beyond when the deal ends in 2033. Doing so gives the Dodgers more flexibility to sign other players and boost the roster around Ohtani while saving them some money on their competitive balance tax.
And here's another wild stat: Ohtani's average annual salary of $70 million is higher than the opening day payrolls of both the Baltimore Orioles and the Oakland Athletics. The Orioles ended up winning the AL East with a 101-61 record, while the Athletics had one of the worst seasons in recent history, finishing 50-112 and drawing the ire of their fans amid plans to move to Las Vegas.
Ohtani is currently recovering from an injury to his ulnar collateral ligament. It's the second injury he's had like that in his five-year MLB career. He had surgery in September and will reportedly be able to hit without any restrictions by the start of the 2024 season, though he won't do any pitching until 2025.
Still, the 29-year-old Ohtani is the first baseball player ever to win unanimous MVPs more than once, taking home the hardware in 2021 and 2023. The Dodgers, who have consistently reached the postseason but have only won the World Series once (during the COVID-shortened 2020 season), were willing to pony up the money to sign a player who could help them dominate for years to come.
In his Instagram post, Ohtani expressed his "sincere gratitude to everyone involved with the Angels organization" and also apologized for "taking so long to come to a decision."
For Dodgers fans, it was worth the wait. The best player in Major League Baseball just joined their team.
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