Official Shohei Ohtani Thread (Update: Ohtani signs with Dodgers 10 years, $700 million)

[SharoneWright]

That’s $951,193,600 CDN.

I went to the sixth decimal point, because at this amount, it matters!

[Mehar]

700 million is wild but damn Toronto sports just in the mud. No Soto (who I doubt we seriously offered for) and now Ohtani. Gonna be tough to pivot to Soler/Chapman lmfao

Jays can now sign Gurriel to play LF, and have Teoscar Hernandez at DH.

[Kinger95]

Technically speaking there’s really no way for him to play up to the value of this contract.

You could go sign 5 guys for like 15 mill each to give you the same amount of WAR, and from those 5 guys you have so much less risk and potential for over performance but otani literally needs to win mvp 5 times to be worth half that contract

[Lateral Quicks]

Good luck to Ohtani and the Dodgers. While I'm disappointed, I'm also relieved we aren't paying him nearly $100MM (CAD) per year for the next 10 years.

[Harry Palmer]

Also, not just saying this, I always thought his elbows were a bit too pointy.

[Lateral Quicks]

Wasn't the rumoured Toronto offer $600MM over 10 years? I wonder if this forced the Dodgers to $700MM at the last minute to seal the deal.

[RaoulDuke79]

That's a lot of cash for a DH...(I know he's a great pitcher, when he can pitch).

[Kingsway_fan]

Insane offer... he won't be healthy long enough to earn close to value but ...

[Kingsway_fan]

American media don't want their big stars playing here...

[Parataxis]

So, adding in approx $18.5MM for 25 MLB minimum salary players to fill out a roster, Team Ohtani would be the 26th highest payroll in the Majors last year (by opening day salary), just barely behind the Guardians at $89MM

Wow.

[Mehar]

Wasn't the rumoured Toronto offer $600MM over 10 years? I wonder if this forced the Dodgers to $700MM at the last minute to seal the deal.

I am thinking the same. The Jays were used as Leverage, forcing the Dodgers in all likelihood to throw an extra 100 million to Ohtani making the offer 700 million over 10 years. In the end, I firmly believe that Ohtani wanted to stay in Southern California. From everything I read the past year, he loved living in Newport Beach and Southern California in general. The Dodgers were always the Front Runner.

[Randle McMurphy]

Is it Darvish 2.0 time?

Yep, almost identical it turned out although this was many times worse due to yesterday afternoon.

His agent certainly did an amazing job playing Rogers off to get 700M out of LAD.

[Randle McMurphy]

Matt Chapman time Baby!

No

[polo007]

Shohei Ohtani joining Dodgers on 10-year, $700M contract - ESPN.com

Shohei Ohtani signed a historic 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday.

Ohtani posted to Instagram on Saturday saying he would play for his former team's crosstown rival starting next season after spending six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels.

"I pledge to always do what's best for the team and always continue to give it my all to be the best version of myself. Until the last day of my playing career, I want to continue to strive forward not only for the Dodgers but for the baseball world," Ohtani wrote.

The contract is the largest in baseball history by more than $250 million, topping the 12-year, $426.5 million that now-former teammate Mike Trout signed in 2019. The $70 million average annual salary also easily eclipses the previous record of $43.3 million for Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer.

The deal does not include any opt-outs, a source told ESPN. Another source said "the majority" of Ohtani's salary will be deferred in order to mitigate what the Dodgers are charged toward their competitive balance tax payroll on a yearly basis, giving them more freedom to add to their payroll over the life of Ohtani's contract. The deferrals, according to the source, were Ohtani's idea.

[JaysRule15]

I hereby officially ban any JP Morosi tweets on this board. Smh clown.

[RalphWiggum]

Is it Darvish 2.0 time?

Yep, almost identical it turned out although this was many times worse due to yesterday afternoon.

His agent certainly did an amazing job playing Rogers off to get 700M out of LAD.

I realize a hundred million more dollars is nothing to sneeze but at the end of the day does it matter to somebody like Ohtani? He'll probably make close to that in endorsements alone over the next decade. The man is basically a God back in Japan. The Dodgers could've stuck to their guns at let's say 55 million and he was still signing there. The only thing I'm upset about is the organization looking like fools again.

Over the last 4-5 days I raised my chances of landing him from 1% to 5% but in the back of my head I always knew he was going to end up a Dodger.

[Mehar]

Is it Darvish 2.0 time?

Yep, almost identical it turned out although this was many times worse due to yesterday afternoon.

His agent certainly did an amazing job playing Rogers off to get 700M out of LAD.

I realize a hundred million more dollars is nothing to sneeze but at the end of the day does it matter to somebody like Ohtani? He'll probably make close to that in endorsements alone over the next decade. The man is basically a God back in Japan. The Dodgers could've stuck to their guns at let's say 55 million and he was still signing there. The only thing I'm upset about is the organization looking like fools again.

Over the last 4-5 days I raised my chances of landing him from 1% to 5% but in the back of my head I always knew he was going to end up a Dodger.

The extra 100 millions dollars matters to Ohtani's agent, and his final commission. Ohtani wants his agent to get the Maximum Best Deal possible, and I applaud his agent for using the Jays as Leverage to get that extra 100 million from the Dodgers. The Dodgers could have held their guns, but his agent knew they would fold and cough up more money, with the rumours going around how Ohtani was likely to sign with the Jays. Brilliant job by Ohtani's agent.

[tanuki1031]

Shohei Ohtani joining Dodgers on 10-year, $700M contract - ESPN.com

Shohei Ohtani signed a historic 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday.

Ohtani posted to Instagram on Saturday saying he would play for his former team's crosstown rival starting next season after spending six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels.

"I pledge to always do what's best for the team and always continue to give it my all to be the best version of myself. Until the last day of my playing career, I want to continue to strive forward not only for the Dodgers but for the baseball world," Ohtani wrote.

The contract is the largest in baseball history by more than $250 million, topping the 12-year, $426.5 million that now-former teammate Mike Trout signed in 2019. The $70 million average annual salary also easily eclipses the previous record of $43.3 million for Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer.

The deal does not include any opt-outs, a source told ESPN. Another source said "the majority" of Ohtani's salary will be deferred in order to mitigate what the Dodgers are charged toward their competitive balance tax payroll on a yearly basis, giving them more freedom to add to their payroll over the life of Ohtani's contract. The deferrals, according to the source, were Ohtani's idea.

With the dollar of the Ohtani contract one would think it will be the one and only contract allowed to fully backload the salary like how the NHL immediately implemented the Kovalchuk rule. You simply cannot have players signing 8+ year $400+M deals in their early 30s with a nominal cap impact during the prime years of the contract.
That's what the Devils tried some years ago offering Kovy something like $1M each year of the proposed contract and then like $30+M in the final year when he'd be in his 40s. The NHL shut that **** down before the contract would even be printed and Kovy retired to the KHL paycheque instead.

[TravisScott55]

Toronto will always lose to LA

[Ado05]

Tough to lose out on a once in a lifetime talent, I dont care about the contract.

But its pretty clear he wanted to be a Dodger.