Ohtani To The Dodgers for $700 Million. Are the Giants Paying Attention?

Shohei Ohtani photo via Wikimedia commons. Money added by BAS.

The Dodgers are betting against the market. As it pains me to say Shohei Ohtani is a Dodger. 700 million dollars over ten years. That’s 70 million a year and 48 thousand an inning but more on that later. He is making more than the A’s and Orioles entire payroll. As a lifelong Giants fan, I am good with not making a guy after a Tommy John surgery the highest paid player in baseball history. Wait my bad, the highest paid player in international team sports. They might be getting more on the LIV Tour for golfers but I don’t know, that’s Saudi money. I do know the biggest contract in sport was shelled out to Lionell Messi courtesy of Barca. For those that don’t know, that’s FC Barcelona who, at the time paid, Lionell Messi a record setting 673 million dollar contract for four seasons.

Shohei Ohtani is the face of baseball. No doubt. Not in America but worldwide. Beyond Japan. The East Coast wanted him in Toronto so he could be seen while families were finishing up their nightly dinners and say things like “My grandpappy used to watch Babe Ruth. I feel like this Ohtani kid is better.”

I’m not a Babe Ruth guy but I am down with nostalgia so I respect it. If Shohei can pitch again at his level he is going to rival Willie Mays as the best player to ever play the game. I know that’s a homer statement but baseball fans around the world will agree. Grab a mit grab a bat, that makes you great and the “Say Hey Kid” embodied that. Shohei does both at a level never seen in my lifetime or grandpa’s.

Tony Kornheiser, one of the best writers in sports history, has said since day one that Ohtani was going to be a Dodger. Stating a week ago on Pardon The Interruption, “He knew since last year’s All Star break … he was going to be a Dodger.”

This is where it sucks for Giants fans. It’s not that they got him, we were all rooting for Toronto. While the details of the contract have not been fully announced it is known that, by his own choice, he has deferred a majority of that contract so the Dodgers can build a winner. Basically meaning don’t worry about paying me now, keep spending. Think Bobby Bonilla who is still making money off of the Met’s for a deferred contract.

So when I said that the Dodgers were basically shorting the MLB market aiming to make money on the backend to pay Shohei down the line, they are all in on the gamble and so is Ohtani. I just hope Farhan Zaidi, president of baseball operations for the SF Giants, saw this coming and finally has a move of his own. I’ll be over here not holding my breath. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Cody Bellinger, start deferring those guys some money. Otherwise we’ll be here hanging out with the Rockies waiting to see in a decade if it paid off.