When all is said and done, less than half of the reported Ohtani contract numbers may come from Dodgers owners’ bank accounts. Here’s how.
@boardroom The LA Dodgers are rewriting the rules of baseball in real time. #shoheiohtani #dodgers #mlb ♬ original sound – Boardroom
Los Angeles and its wealthy conglomerate of team owners opened their checkbooks to convince generational superstar Shohei Ohtani to move across town and wear Dodger Blue for the next decade.
You’ve all seen the reported numbers — an absurd $700 million over the next decade — good enough to easily be the largest deal in all of North American sports. For reference, the largest contract in MLB history before that one was from Ohtani’s former teammate Mike Trout, at $426.5 million over 12 years.
But that’s not even the craziest part of this deal. As more details emerge, the contract only gets odder, as it has been reported that $680 million of the deal will be deferred until AFTER he plays out the 10 years in LA. This means Ohtani will only get paid a base salary of $2 million per year from the Dodgers until the contract runs out, with $68 million coming his way annually until 2043.
If it seems like a lot, well, it is. But the Dodgers are no dummies, and team owners may have a plan in place that helps alleviate some of the cost for Ohtani.
Boardroom’s Gabe Oshin explains why Ohtani’s record-breaking deal might not be as back-breaking for LA as it would be for most clubs.
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