Shohei Ohtani just received the biggest contract in sports history. Here is everything you need to know.
First off, who is Shohei Ohtani? Ohtani is known as ‘Baseballs unicorn’ or ‘ Sho-time’ because of his extraordinary talents. Not only does Ohtani hit at the designated-hitter (DH) spot as one of the top hitters in the league, but he is one of the top pitchers as well. On top of that, he has exhibited both talents in the same game often. This has never been seen before to the extent Sho-time performs at. Although Babe Ruth pitched and hit for some time, it was never to Ohtani’s level concurrently.
Before Ohtani debuted in the majors on March 29th, 2018, he played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Fighters from 2013 through 2017 as a pitcher and an outfielder. He also recorded the fastest pitch by a Japanese pitcher in NPB history at 165 kilometers per hour (102.5 mph).
In the 2023 regular season, Ohtani pitched to a 3.14 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP in 23 games. He slugged 44 home runs, had a .654 slugging percentage, and a 1.066 OPS. The 29-year-old superstar has 2 MVPs, in 2021 and 2023. In 2022, he was the AL MVP runner-up to Aaron Judge, who hit a record-breaking 62 home runs.
With Ohtani being a free agent this offseason, lots of rumors swirled around the baseball world. A big question was would he end up in New York? However, the New York Yankees traded for Juan Soto, and as for the New York Mets, although they have the richest owner in baseball, there were still no reports of them seriously talking with Ohtani. Two teams that just fell short of landing the two-in-one player were the Toronto Blue Jays and San Francisco Giants. Despite the most speculation being around the Blue Jays, Ohtani decided to sign elsewhere. Regarding the Giants, they made a $700M offer but I guess that still was not enough. In the end, he remains on the West Coast but with the Angels’ cross-town rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers. You can expect to see Ohtani in a Dodgers uniform for the next 10 years. Over those years Ohtani will earn $700M. If you think that number sounds familiar, it is. That is the same offer the Giants made. A record $680 million of that will be deferred until after Ohtani’s playing days with the Dodgers.
There has yet to be any player who has hit 20 homers for both the Angels and Dodgers, but that should be no problem for Ohtani. The legendary Frank Robinson just missed the mark with 50 homers with the Angels and 19 with the Dodgers.
This should be a fun next few years for the Dodgers with by far the best trio in the league with Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and now Shohei Ohtani. Although the Dodgers won the World Series in 2020, which was the COVID-19 year, they have not made it too far into the playoffs in recent years. Maybe Ohtani is just what they need to push themselves even further.
