Shohei Ohtani chooses Dodgers (2024)

Shohei Ohtani’s singular pursuit of history, one man’s quest to rewrite the baseball world’s understanding of what is possible, reached another summit on Saturday when he agreed to the largest contract in the annals of major North American team sports, a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Catch up with The Athletic's full coverage of his signing:

• Who is Shohei Ohtani? The Dodgers are about to find out: ‘He wants mastery’
• Rosenthal: Shohei Ohtani’s $700M deal shows that baseball is far from broken
• McCullough: For Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers are everything the Angels weren’t
• At Angel Stadium, fans mourn as signs of Shohei Ohtani are quickly wiped away
• Mets owner Steve Cohen: Ohtani’s agent ‘never reached out to me personally’

Shohei Ohtani’s record-setting 10-year, $700 million deal includes a series of unprecedented deferrals, a person briefed on the terms told The Athletic on Monday.

In an effort to enable the Los Angeles Dodgers to continue spending around stars Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, Ohtani agreed to defer all but $2 million of his annual salary — $68 million of his $70 million per year — until after the completion of the contract. The deferred money is to be paid out without interest from 2034 to 2043.

The previously unreported deferrals were said to be suggested by Ohtani himself as the negotiations vaulted the figure towards $700 million, the person briefed on the terms told The Athletic. The deal is expected to soon be finalized.

The unusual structure is intended to provide the Dodgers additional cash flow and payroll flexibility. In the meantime, Ohtani continues to bring in big dollars elsewhere from endorsem*nts and off-the-field ventures. Ohtani is believed to make $50 million per year annually away from the diamond, the person briefed on the terms told The Athletic.

The trade with the Yankees, on its face, helps the Dodgers accomplish an important thing: it frees up two spots on the 40-man roster so they can make Shohei Ohtani’s signing official along with that of Joe Kelly. It also provides some insight into how creative the Dodgers are going to have to be at points to access young talent since Ohtani’s signing (deferrals and all) likely means the Dodgers will continue to be regularly paying the competitive balance tax and dealing with the talent-acquisition penalties that come with it. That means getting picks pushed back, having their international bonus pools cut and worse picks even when they lose out on their big free agents. It’s not new territory for the Dodgers, but it’s about to be a regular occurrence.

So the Dodgers — who have done a good job stocking the cupboard even with some of these penalties in place by producing real talents late in the first round and beyond and finding edges on the fringes (one of their top prospects, River Ryan, was acquired as part of a trade for a player in Matt Beaty who had been designated for assignment) — used that depth to keep things moving. Rather than just designate players for assignment who might still have value, they managed to at least partially address an organizational need. Trey Sweeney gives the organization prospect depth at shortstop, which they were lacking, and still has upside being two years removed from being the Yankees’ first-round selection in 2021. That ability to play shortstop (and the fact that he isn’t on the 40-man roster) probably gives him more utility to the Dodgers than Jorbit Vivas, who has been a productive hitter but hasn’t found a true defensive home.

Victor González had his moments for the organization, including being the winning pitcher in the World Series clincher in 2020, but has been plagued by injuries and inconsistency the last few years since. Barring a strong spring, he was expected to be on the periphery of the Dodgers’ plans for their bullpen.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are trading left-handed reliever Victor Gonzalez and second baseman/third baseman Jorbit Vivas for shortstop prospect Trey Sweeney, a league source confirmed.

The move clears 40-man roster spots for both Shohei Ohtani and Joe Kelly.

I wrote in August that I thought Shohei Ohtani would still get a record-breaking contract even after his elbow injury that precludes him from pitching until 2025, and that he’d still end up underpaid relative to his actual value to his team. I was half right: He got paid, but I’m not sure I could argue he’s underpaid, at least not without knowing a lot more about the Dodgers’ revenues now that he’s signed with the boys in blue.

Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million deal has some significant deferred money in it, so the AAV of $70 million isn’t quite an accurate rendering of how much he’s going to be paid … but that’s pedantic when it’s the largest contract guarantee to any professional athlete in any sport. He’s a unicorn, and the most valuable player in the sport, whether you’re talking about the postseason award of that name, sabermetric measures of value, or the total revenue he brings to his club just by virtue of being on the roster. It’s possible that $70 million a year isn’t enough to cover it, although I feel more comfortable saying that I just don’t know if he’s underpaid or not, and at least he’s getting paid something close to his actual value.

The Dodgers didn’t lack for production at DH last year, with a .268/.332/.529 line from all their designated hitters in 2023, mostly from the now-departed J.D. Martinez, but Ohtani is obviously an upgrade for every team at DH. He was worth about 4 WAR more than all of the Dodgers’ designated hitters combined last year, referring only to Ohtani’s WAR as a hitter. His .412 OBP in 2023 came from reaching base 245 times in 599 plate appearances, meaning Ohtani reached base more times than all of the Dodgers’ DHs combined in 105 fewer plate appearances. To put it another way, per that same 599 PA, it’s about 48 more times on base — that is, 48 fewer outs made. The value of that varies a little by year, but even if those extra times on base were just walks and singles, it would be worth about 20-25 more runs to the Dodgers’ offense.

Los Angeles had the second-best offense in the NL last year, and they got better. No matter how you slice it, the Dodgers are way better off just for having Ohtani’s bat, before we talk about what his pitching might do for them in 2025 and beyond, or any of that ancillary revenue that drove his contract to new heights.

Continue reading here.

Somehow, despite pushing their chips all in, the Dodgers still have another hand or two to play.

There is Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the 25-year-old Japanese right-hander who rivals reigning Cy Young winner Blake Snell as the top pitcher on the open market and could be the rare pitcher to surpass the $200 million mark. The Dodgers remain in the mix for his services along with a group that includes the Mets, Yankees and Ohtani runners-up such as the Giants and Blue Jays. While Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he had not met with Yamamoto ahead of the pitcher’s arrival in the United States this weekend (unlike Mets owner Steve Cohen, who jumped on a trans-Pacific flight), Dodgers officials feel that Yamamoto growing up a Dodgers fan could boost the club’s odds should they be able to reach such a high number.

The trade market could be a more logical route should the Dodgers not be able to net both Japanese stars (or if 22-year-old phenom Roki Sasaki’s request to be posted to MLB clubs is denied, as expected). Ohtani’s arrival further clogs already-limited opportunities for major-league-ready Dodgers prospects such as Michael Busch and Miguel Vargas (and others), freeing them up to be used as trade bait for the pitching they need.

Rays right-hander Tyler Glasnow has emerged as a prominent Dodgers trade target over the last week, according to multiple people familiar with the situation. Some sources suggested that talks could pick up now that the Dodgers have secured an agreement with Ohtani. The Dodgers are not alone in this pursuit, with the Cubs, Reds, Angels and at least one other club among those to approach the Rays about the 30-year-old right-hander (who is owed $25 million in his final year before free agency). No deal was seen as close as of Saturday night, but the Dodgers and Rays appear to be a logical fit.

Continue reading here.

It’s time for the Chicago Cubs to go back to work after Shohei Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team that won 100 games during what was essentially a bridge season to get to the Japanese superstar. After so much misdirection and misinformation on X, formerly Twitter, Ohtani picked the West Coast team with the most money and the best platform to build a legacy as the greatest baseball player ever. The rich get richer.

Craig Counsell looks at it like a puzzle to solve. His new offseason routine involves going to Wrigley Field about once a week. The proximity to his family’s Wisconsin home was part of the appeal when he decided to jump from the Milwaukee Brewers to the big-market team 90 miles south, a decision that angered his hometown fans and stunned his old boss. Though he seemed surprised by the blowback from that decision, he made it knowing he would have far more resources at his disposal and a much wider range of possibilities.

Counsell and Cubs officials are still in the getting-to-know-you phase of their partnership. With a Notre Dame degree, two World Series rings as a player, experience in Milwaukee’s front office and a five-year, $40 million contract, Counsell can — and probably should — weigh in on all aspects of baseball operations. If everything was going so great in Wrigleyville, then the Cubs wouldn’t have missed the playoffs by one game and fired David Ross. The Cubs do, however, have a nucleus of major-league talent, a top farm system, financial flexibility and the highest-paid manager in the game.

“I’m the outside eyes,” Counsell said. “I have opinions and I’m going to share them. I think that’s healthy. That’s why I’m here — to try to help the Cubs win games — but you try to do that by making things better in every possible way you can.”

Continue reading here.

The Blue Jays did not get their man.

Toronto’s weeks-long pursuit of Shohei Ohtani ultimately proved unsuccessful after the two-way superstar agreed to terms on a record-setting 10-year, $700-million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now the Blue Jays’ front office will face the tall task of pivoting to alternatives to improve the club — knowing no player will equal the impact Ohtani would have brought to the team both on the field and off — while also trying to satisfy an increasingly restless fan base.

Ohtani’s Saturday afternoon announcement on Instagram confirming his choice to play for the Dodgers is a punch to the gut for Blue Jays fans, considering only 24 hours prior, OhtaniMania reached new heights in Toronto as rumors swirled on social media about the Japanese star potentially selecting the Blue Jays.

Fans’ hopes peaked when what proved to be an inaccurate report from MLB Network’s Jon Morosi suggested Ohtani was on a flight heading to Toronto, only for it to ultimately be carrying Canadian businessman and reality television personality Robert Herjavec.

That brief, sweet taste of euphoria quickly soured for Blue Jays fans, who will likely spend the rest of the week working their way through the five stages of grief. While Toronto has landed top free agents in recent years, including Hyun Jin Ryu, George Springer and Kevin Gausman, it’s still a familiar feeling up north to be spurned by a star athlete for a team in one of the major U.S. markets. That Ohtani’s decision comes after an achingly unsatisfactory 2023 season that was capped off by a controversial playoff loss makes the loss sting even more for Canadian baseball fans.

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Red paint stained Sebastian Romero’s hands as he held onto a sign that read “SELL THE TEAM, ARTE!” in the franchise’s bright, unmistakable signature color.

The Anaheim native in his early 20s had awoken Saturday midday to the most devastating news a lifelong Angels fan could get: Shohei Ohtani had signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers on a 10-year, $700-million deal.

“I haven’t eaten breakfast yet, I haven’t drank anything. I woke up, and saw Ohtani to the Dodgers and had a good cry in my shower,” Romero said, the speed of his voice increasing as he appeared to be holding back more tears. “This is one of the few things I’m very, very, very passionate about.”

A moment later, his voice was drowned out by a crane pulling up to the massive Ohtani mural just feet from where he stood. The final vestige of the two-way superstar’s legendary six-year term with the Angels was soon being torn unceremoniously off the side of Angel Stadium by a man in a cherry picker.

His crane rolled in at 2:42 p.m. — about two-and-a-half hours after Ohtani’s Instagram post announcing his decision. The final square was rolled up and whisked away at 3:48 p.m. Gone as if he was never there.

“I have so many memories coming out here watching him,” said Barry Foster, a lifelong Angels fan and Orange resident. “I don’t like to over-dramatize sports. But it feels like someone is just leaving you. … It’s very tough.”

The Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani, one of the greatest baseball talents to ever walk the earth. The Giants were hoping to sign him. As far as baseball-related developments go, it’s not great.

You would like some optimism. I’m sorry, but we’re fresh out. There are only sour grapes. And if you put those sour grapes into a bag with some yeast and sugar, then put the bag behind the toilet for a while, you’ll get some sweet, sweet pruno. It’ll give you a headache and make you throw up, but it’ll help you forget for a while. Maybe just chew on the sour grapes, one at a time. There are no good answers, here. Shohei Ohtani is on the Dodgers. This is rough. This is really, really rough.

Is there anything to take away from this? It’s time for some do’s and don’ts.

Shohei Ohtani was not the biggest domino of this baseball offseason. He was the Star Wars blockbuster, Taylor Swift concert, Stranger Things finale that made us forget there were any dominos in the first place.

Ohtani fueled his own hot stove. He was a free agent so distinct — so on-the-field potent and in-the-culture significant — that any team with money could have justified signing him. Need? Who thinks about need with a player like this? It’s like Jeopardy: Ohtani is the answer, and you figure out the question later.

In this case: Who is the Los Angeles Dodgers’ new designated hitter?

On Saturday, Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700-million deal. It is, of course, the largest contract in baseball history. There is only one Ohtani.

But can we interest you in a former MVP, a reigning Cy Young, or a Japanese ace?

Ohtani was, of course, No. 1 on The Athletic’s big board of free agents, and No. 2, Aaron Nola, has also signed, but 22 of our top 25 free agents remain available, and the trade market has barely budged. Now that Ohtani is off the market, baseball can settle into a far more typical offseason.

These are 10 players who could see their markets finally take shape now that a baseball unicorn is no longer blocking out the sun.

The best baseball player in the world just joined the most successful franchise in the sport’s recent history.

No wonder Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was bursting at the seams last week at the Winter Meetings, incapable of lying when asked about meeting with Shohei Ohtani. No wonder his superiors dummied up like mannequins, petrified Roberts’ candor might affect their chances. No wonder the rest of the industry sounded perplexed when it looked like Ohtani might land anywhere else.

The fit between franchise and two-way sensation always made too much sense. All it took to make it reality was the largest contract in professional sports history, a 10-year, $700 million pact that will keep Ohtani in Southern California and buoy the hopes of Dodgers fans frustrated by a rash of early postseason exits in recent years. Ohtani spent his final seasons with the Angels frustrated by the franchise’s ineptitude. The Dodgers spent the past few years waiting to pounce, forgoing major acquisitions last winter in hopes of keeping payroll space free. It all came together on Saturday with a deal that was shocking for its size but utterly predictable for its result.

Ohtani in Dodger blue.

Roberts writing out a regular lineup that includes Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Ohtani.

The Dodgers favored to rule the National League West, as always.

Continue reading here.

The fact that Shohei Ohtani, baseball’s biggest star, did not end up playing for the New York Mets and Steve Cohen, baseball’s richest owner, shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Within the industry, many expected Ohtani to stay on the West Coast. And in the end, he did just that, agreeing to a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday for 10 years and $700 million.

“The agent never reached out to me personally,” Cohen told The Athletic, “and I think that’s pretty telling.”

Indeed, if a star’s representation — especially in the case of Ohtani — never talks with a team’s ownership, that’s a surefire indication things never went beyond a preliminary stage, at most. Thus, reading between the lines, Ohtani probably never had much interest in playing for New York.

The Mets plan to be competitive in 2024 while valuing the future. They are not one player away from making a deep playoff run. Although the Mets have stars such as Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor, pitching lingers as the club’s primary need.

Read more here.

The usual howls are coming. The large-market teams end up with all the best players. A $700 million contract is outrageous. Baseball needs a salary cap.

We’ve been hearing this talk for years. The small-market frustration, to a degree, is understandable. But the most expensive teams — see the 2023 Mets, Yankees and Padres — do not always win.

It would be difficult for anyone to argue baseball is broken. If anything, baseball appears headed for a renaissance. And Shohei Ohtani, the sport’s biggest star and most transcendent figure, is the reason the game is creating more buzz than at any point in recent years, and maybe decades.

Fans of the losing bidders — the Cubs, Giants and most of all, the Blue Jays — will not want to hear this. Fans of teams in the game’s smallest markets will want to hear it even less. But Ohtani’s choice of the Dodgers, who play in the nation’s second-largest media market, only enhances his stature, and that of his sport.

He now owns the richest deal in sports, even if the massive deferrals reduce the present-day value of his contract. He will be playing for the game’s most successful regular-season franchise over the past decade, but one that has not won a World Series in a full season since 1988. All eyes will be on him, even those of casual fans.

Read more here.

Opening Day payroll of the five American League Central teams in 2023: $638.8 million

Shohei's contract: $700 million

After a Friday in which Blue Jays fans were led to believe they were on the verge of signing Ohtani, now this. He’s a Dodger, after all. We’re not sure how you recover from that, so let’s consider where the Blue Jays stand now.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette debuted five years ago and have yet to win a playoff game. Headlined by those two, the Blue Jays were supposed to be a franchise-altering young core, and they kept adding to it — George Springer, Kevin Gausman, José Berrios, Matt Chapman, Daulton Varsho — but they haven’t gotten over the hump of a couple 90-win seasons and some early postseason exits. Ohtani would have been their biggest splash yet, and the free-agent market doesn’t have a Plan B bat anything like him now that Juan Soto’s been traded to the Yankees. Sure, without Ohtani, the Blue Jays maintain some DH flexibility for Guerrero going forward, and they can perhaps keep rotating catchers Alejandro Kirk and Danny Jansen through the DH spot next year or else go sign another bat, but Ohtani was a unique opportunity to plug a short-term hole in the lineup and create some long-term upside with the rotation.

Could the Blue Jays put that Ohtani money toward some extensions and keep waiting for their homegrown breakthrough? Maybe, but for a few hours, maybe even a few days, it honestly felt like they were about to make arguably the biggest signing in baseball history, and it didn’t happen. It’s hard to bounce back from that right away.

Shohei Ohtani was far and away the No. 1 player on The Athletic's free-agency big board.

Who's left?

Six of the top 10 free agents entering the offseason are still unsigned. Perhaps Ohtani making his decision will create a domino effect.

Here are the top 10 players available:

1. Yoshinobu Yamamoto
2. Cody Bellinger
3. Blake Snell
4. Jordan Montgomery
5. Matt Chapman
6. Josh Hader
7. Marcus Stroman
8. Shota Imanaga
9. Rhys Hoskins
10. Lucas Giolito