The Japanese superstar Ohtani Shohei, considered the biggest prize on the Major League Baseball free-agent market this winter, has agreed a mega 10-year deal reportedly worth $700 million (USD) with the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to Olympics.com. It's thought to be the biggest contract in team sports history by total value.
The 29-year-old two-way player, who is renowned as both a power hitter and excellent pitcher, announced he had chosen to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday (9 December). The deal is for 10 years and worth U.S. $700 million in total value, according to Ohtani's agent.
However, Ohtani will not be able to pitch in 2024 and will serve only as a designated hitter after undergoing season-ending surgery on an elbow injury back in September.
The deal keeps him in the Los Angeles area, with Ohtani having spent the previous six seasons in Anaheim with the Los Angeles Angels. In his time with the Angels, Ohtani was named the MLB American League Most Valuable Player twice, in 2021 and 2023. He was a unanimous selection as MVP in both years, something no other player has achieved in the award's history. However, the Angels did not make the playoffs in any of those years.
In 2023, Ohtani also played on the Japanese national team that won the World Baseball Classic, registering the last out on the mound before being named tournament MVP. His popularity extends all across Japan, with even the figure skating legend Hanyu Yuzuru having cited him as an inspiration.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers are one of MLB's powerhouse teams and will next season feature three of the four top-ranked players in 2023 in the Wins Above Replacement stat: Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman. The Dodgers last won the World Series in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
The hype surrounding the free agency of Major League Baseball's top player had built to a crescendo on Friday, with rumours and inaccurate reports that Ohtani had chosen a different team, Canada's Toronto Blue Jays, as his destination before the Japanese star's announcement a day later.
While Ohtani will make an average of U.S. $70 million a year, the contract is reported to contain deferred payments towards the back end of – and even after – his playing contract ends, allowing the Dodgers wriggle room to work within MLB's competitive balance rules.
Ohtani's contract is not the richest contract in team sports by average annual value, with many world football contracts worth more on an annual basis.
Born in Oshu, Japan, Ohtani is widely considered a once in a century talent in the sport of baseball. He has twice won the MLB most valuable player award. During the 2023 season alone, he led all American league batters with 44 home runs while maintaining an earned run average of just 3.14, a pitching metric that measures the average number of runs scored by opposing batters per nine innings pitched.
Earlier this summer, Ohtani became the first MLB player in six decades to hit two home runs while also shutting out ten batters from the pitching mound in the same game.
The Dodgers, owned since 2012 by a consortium which includes Chelsea FC owner Todd Boehly, last won the World Series in 2020. The franchise originated in Brooklyn in 1883 before moving to Los Angeles in 1958.
