Cody Snavely
The wait is finally over! Shohei Ohtani, the star two-way player and the top free agent in this year’s class, has officially signed a 10-year $700 million contract with the Dodgers, which is now the largest contract in North American sports history.
After much speculation throughout the fall/winter on where Ohtani would land, it came down to two teams that were rumored the most: the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays. After yesterday’s plane gate and inaccurate tweets from MLB Networks Jon Morosi, which stated Ohtani was en route to Toronto, many around the sports world believed that Ohtani was taking his talents north of the border to Canada. However, shockingly, it was not true as Ohtani was confirmed to be at his home in California and not en route to ink a deal with the Blue Jays. After the dust had settled, Ohtani himself announced on Instagram on Saturday that he would be signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Breaking down the deal
As stated, Ohtani’s deal is an earth-shattering $700 million over the next ten years; however, it is not as big of an issue per year due to deferrals in his contract. As reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the rumored deal has unprecedented deferrals, the number of which has not yet been reported.
What has been reported, however, was that the idea for deferrals in the contract was Ohtani’s idea as he wanted to set the Dodgers up not only to afford his services but also allow the Dodgers not to be financially held back in terms of bringing in more talent via free agency/trade. At the end of the day, Ohtani wants to win more than anything, and joining the Dodgers gives him the best chance to do that while allowing them to continue to get more stars as they look to get another World Series title.
With the deferrals, I imagine that the Dodgers would like to get the AAV (annual average value) down to 30-40 million dollars annually. This would set up the Dodgers well compared to the back-breaking 70 million AAV that the contract would have with no deferrals. However, the Dodgers seem to be in a Bobby Bonilla situation, as they will pay Ohtani well after he retires. My basic idea is that the Dodgers will pay him over 20 years with a 35-million-dollar AAV.
Is Ohtani worth the investment?
Whoever was inking Ohtani into a massive deal like this was banking not just on his baseball career to continue to be successful but that his market would as well. I have argued for weeks that this is more than just a baseball decision and that any team’s ownership would be involved in a deal this massive due to the dollar amount and how much Ohtani makes in terms of advertisements.
Ohtani is a living, breathing money-making machine. In an article by Keith Law from the Athletic, Ohtani made the Angels around 70-100 million dollars a year on marketing alone. The Dodgers, who have led MLB attendance for what seems like years, are set to probably make 20% of this deal back within the first year based on jersey sales and advertisement deals from Japan and are already at the center of national media attention.
The only way this deal does not work out is if Ohtani is plagued with injuries and never returns to the star two-way player he was with the Angels. However, from their ownership, coaches, and medical staff, the Dodgers must feel confident that Ohtani will return to that peak in 2025 when he fully recovers from his second career Tommy John Surgery.
Where do the Dodgers go from here?
Andrew Friedman never ceases to amaze me, as the Dodgers have brought in a plethora of superstar talents throughout his tenure. However, his job is far from over this offseason. The Dodgers got their big fish of the offseason with Ohtani, but the real issue that has to be addressed is the starting rotation.
The Dodgers had no issues on offense last year as they scored a franchise record of 906 runs, beating teams to a pulp with their flexible platoon line-ups. What was not good, however, was the starting rotation. Since 2014, the Dodgers starting rotation has consistently placed top five in ERA; however, in 2024, that number ballooned to 4.57, which ranked them 20th in the MLB overall.
The Dodgers need to add a front-of-the-end starter for the 2024 season, and plenty of names remain on the trade and free-agent market. Whether it is Corbin Burnes, Tyler Glasnow, or perhaps Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Dodgers should put all their chips in and go for a World Series run in 2024.
Conclusion
The Dodgers arguably just signed the biggest free agent in MLB history, and the team still has massive holes in the pitching department. While Ohtani is an excellent pick-up, the job is not done for Friedman and the Dodgers as they head into the holidays with items left on their shopping list.
If you haven’t already, check out the latest Bleed Los Podcast episode as Roger and I react to the Ohtani signing and answer a few questions along the way.
