LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani opened his first news conference with the Los Angeles Dodgers by dodging questions about whether he had a second Tommy John surgery.
“At the time of the announcement, we didn’t know which way we were going to go. That’s why I never said what type of procedure was going to be done,” Ohtani said Thursday at a news conference to discuss his record $700 million, 10-year contract.
It was Ohtani’s first time speaking with the media since Aug. 9, two weeks before a pitching injury that required surgery with Dodgers head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Sept. 19 and will keep him off the mound until 2025. Ohtani previously underwent Tommy John surgery with ElAttrache on Oct. 1, 2018.
“I’m not obviously an expert in the medical field, but it was a procedure,” Ohtani said. “I’m not sure what it’s called, I know it was completely different from my first time, so I don’t know what you what to call it. You could probably talk to my doctor about that.”
Ohtani refused to say what other teams he negotiated with before the agreement last weekend.
“Free agency is still going on and I don’t really want to mess with their plans and I don’t want to say anything wrong, so I don’t want to really talk about what I had talks with with other organizations,” he said through interpreter Ippei Mizuhara.
He added that he “can’t wait to join the team and get it going.”
Ohtani did reveal the name of his dog, seen on his lap when he appeared on the MLB Network for the announcement of his second MVP award on Nov. 16. The dog has an American name, “Decoy,” and a Japanese name, “Dekopin” or “Decopin,” depending on the transliteration.
Ohtani wore a navy business suit with a white shirt and blue tie, took off the jacket and put on a Dodgers home jersey with No. 17 and then the blue cap with the interlocking L and A. He took off the cap before speaking.
“One thing that really stands out in my head,” he said, “when I had the meeting with the Dodgers, the ownership group, they said when they looked back at the last 10 years, even though they made the playoffs every single year, won one World Series ring, they considered that a failure. And when I heard that, I knew they were all about winning, and that’s exactly how I feel.”
Ohtani never reached the playoffs in six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels.
An electronic sign flashed “Welcome to the Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani” in English and Japanese above the stage. Ohtani thanked controlling owner Mark Walter, team president Stan Kasten, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, general manager Brandon Gomes and manager Dave Roberts.
The Dodgers had attempted to sign Ohtani out of high school before he joined the Nippon Ham Fighters.
“Shohei is arguably the most talented player who has ever played this game,” Friedman said, flanked by Ohtani and Walter. “One of our goals is to have baseball fans in Japan convert to Dodger blue.”
A unique two-way star as both a hitter and pitcher, the 29-year-old Japanese sensation left the Angels as a free agent after six years. He’s moving 30 miles up Interstate 5 after the Dodgers won out over the competition in a deal announced Monday. He said he made his decision Friday night, on the eve of his announcement.
Ohtani also thanked the Angels during a news conference that started shortly after 3 p.m. (8 a.m. Friday in Japan).
“It was a fun ride, a great ride for the last six years. … I’ll never forget all the memories I have,” he said. “There’s always sadness leaving teams. Last time it was the Fighters and in this case it was the Angels.”
The two-time AL MVP has a .274 batting average with 171 homers, 437 RBIs and 86 stolen bases along with a 39-19 record with a 3.01 ERA and 608 strikeouts in 481⅔ innings. Ohtani has 34.7 wins above replacement (WAR), per Baseball Reference.
Ohtani’s unusual contract calls for annual salaries of $70 million, and of each year’s salary, $68 million is deferred with no interest, payable in equal installments each July 1 from 2034 to ’43. Kasten said Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo, proposed the deferred money last Friday, when there were false reports of a possible deal with Toronto.
“Once Shohei had finished meeting with everyone, they said: Here’s what it would take. What do you think?” Kasten said.
Deferred money lowered the annual charge to the Dodgers’ luxury tax payroll to about $46 million, reducing their competitive balance tax.
“I figured if I can defer as much money as I can, if that’s going to help the CBT and that’s going help the Dodgers be able to sign better players and make a better team, I felt like that was worth it,” Ohtani said.
He can opt out of the deal if either Walter or Friedman no longer is with the team, a person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the terms were not announced.
“Everybody has to be on the same page in order to have a winning organization,” Ohtani said. “I feel like those two are at the top of it and they’re in control of everything. And I feel almost like I’m having a contract with those two guys. And I feel like if one of them are gone … things might get a little out of control so I just wanted a safety net.”
Said Friedman: “Obviously, it’s really flattering but also it’s a nonfactor for me.”
First baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays are in agreement on a 14-year, $500 million contract extension, pending physical, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan on Sunday night.
This is a monumental, no-deferral deal to keep the homegrown star in Toronto for the rest of his career, and comes as the 5-5 Blue Jays are in the midst of a road trip that takes them to Fenway Park to meet the Boston Red Sox on Monday.
Guerrero, 26, a four-time All-Star and son of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero, had said he would not negotiate during the season after the sides failed to come to an agreement before he reported to spring training. The sides continued talking, however, and sealed a deal that is the third largest in Major League Baseball history, behind only Juan Soto‘s 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets and Shohei Ohtani‘s 10-year, $700 million pact with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Blue Jays, snakebit in recent years by Soto and Ohtani signing elsewhere, received a long-term commitment from their best homegrown talent since Hall of Famer Roy Halladay.
They had tried to sign Guerrero to a long-term deal for years to no avail. Toronto got a glimpse of Guerrero’s talent when he debuted shortly after his 20th birthday in 2019 and homered 15 times as a rookie. His breakout season came in 2021, when Guerrero finished second to Aaron Judge in American League MVP voting after hitting .311/.401/.601 with 48 home runs and 111 RBIs.
Guerrero followed with a pair of solid-but-below-expectations seasons in 2022 and 2023, and in mid-May 2024, he sported an OPS under .750 as the Blue Jays struggled en route to an eventual last-place finish. Over his last 116 games in 2024, the Guerrero of 2021 reemerged, as he hit .343/.407/.604 with 26 home runs and 84 RBIs.
With a payroll expected to exceed the luxury tax threshold of $241 million, the Blue Jays ended the season’s first week atop the American League East standings. Toronto dropped to 5-3 on Friday after a loss to the Mets, in which Guerrero collected a pair of singles, raising his season slash line to .267/.343/.367.
Between Guerrero and shortstop Bo Bichette‘s free agency after the 2025 season, the Blue Jays faced a potential reckoning. Though Bichette is expected to play out the season before hitting the open market, Guerrero’s deal lessens the sting of Toronto’s pursuits of Ohtani in 2023 and Soto in 2024.
Toronto shook off the signings of Soto and first baseman Pete Alonso with the Mets, left-hander Max Fried with the New York Yankees and infielder Alex Bregman with the Boston Red Sox to retool their roster. Toronto gave outfielder Anthony Santander a heavily deferred five-year, $92.5 million contract, brought in future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer on a one-year, $15.5 million deal, bolstered its bullpen with right-handers Jeff Hoffman and Yimi Garcia, and traded for Platinum Glove-winning second baseman Andres Gimenez, who is hitting cleanup.
Toronto’s long-term commitments will allow for significant financial flexibility. In addition to Bichette and Scherzer, right-hander Chris Bassitt and relievers Chad Green and Erik Swanson are free agents after this season. After 2026, the nine-figure deals of outfielder George Springer and right-hander Kevin Gausman come off the books, as well.
Building around Guerrero is a good place to start. One of only a dozen players in MLB with at least two seasons of six or more Wins Above Replacement since 2021, Guerrero consistently is near the top of MLB leaderboards in hardest-hit balls, a metric that typically translates to great success.
Like his father, who hit 449 home runs and batted .318 over a 16-year career, Guerrero has rare bat-to-ball skills, particularly for a player with top-of-the-scale power. In his six MLB seasons, Guerrero has hit .288/.363/.499 with 160 home runs, 510 RBIs and 559 strikeouts against 353 walks.
Originally a third baseman, Guerrero shifted to first base during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Had the Blue Jays signed Alonso, they signaled the possibility of Guerrero returning full time to third, where he played a dozen games last year.
With the extension in place, the 6-foot-2, 245-pound Guerrero is expected to remain at first base and reset a market that had been topped by the eight-year, $248 million extension Miguel Cabrera signed just shy of his 31st birthday in 2014.
Jamison Hensley is a reporter covering the Baltimore Ravens for ESPN. Jamison joined ESPN in 2011, covering the AFC North before focusing exclusively on the Ravens beginning in 2013. Jamison won the National Sports Media Association Maryland Sportswriter of the Year award in 2018, and he authored a book titled: Flying High: Stories of the Baltimore Ravens. He was the Ravens beat writer for the Baltimore Sun from 2000-2011.
The NASCAR legend announced Friday on social media that he has secured the right to use a stylized version of No. 8 and will abandon the original No. 8 logo used by Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports. This decision came two days after Jackson filed an opposition claim with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to stop Earnhardt from putting that JR Motorsports version of No. 8 on merchandising.
“We are looking forward to the remainder of an already successful season,” Earnhardt wrote on social media.
Jackson, who has worn No. 8 since his college days at Louisville, previously registered the trademark “ERA 8 by Lamar Jackson.” His filing had argued Earnhardt’s attempt to trademark that particular version of No. 8 would create confusion among consumers.
The trademark review for a challenge can take more than a year. If the U.S. Patent and Trademark appeal board would have denied Earnhardt, Jackson could have sued him if Earnhardt had used it for merchandising.
This isn’t the first time that Jackson has tried to stop another athlete from filing a trademark on this number. In July, Jackson challenged Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman’s attempt to use “EIGHT” on apparel and bags.
When asked about this dispute last summer, Jackson said, “We’re going to keep this about football. That’s outside noise. We’re sticking with [talking about training] camp, football, and that’s it.”
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Denny Hamlin did his job so his pit crew could do its most stellar stop at the perfect time.
Hamlin came into the pits after a final caution in third place and told himself to hit every mark, then let his guys take over.
And that’s what the Joe Gibbs Racing group did, pulling off a perfect winning moment that sent Hamlin out with the lead. He took over on the final restart and held off William Byron to win the Goodyear 400 on Sunday.
It was Hamlin’s 56th career NASCAR win, his fifth at Darlington Raceway and his second straight this season
“When you think about 56 wins, that’s a huge deal,” said Gibbs, Hamlin’s longtime car owner.
Hamlin said he hung on throughout as Byron and others looked like they might pull out victory. Instead, Hamlin waited out his time and then pounced as he broke away during the green-white-checkered finish.
“I can still do it, I can do it at a high level and look forward to winning a lot of races this year,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin won for a second straight week after his success at Martinsville.
Hamlin chose the outside lane for a final restart and shot out to the lead and pulled away from series points leader Byron and NASCAR wins leader Christopher Bell.
Hamlin looked like he’d have a strong finish, but not a winning one as Ryan Blaney passed Tyler Reddick for the lead with three laps left. But moments later, Kyle Larson spun out forcing a final caution and the extra laps.
It was then time for Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew to shine as it got him out quickly and in the lead.
Byron, who led the first 243 laps, was second with Hamlin’s JGR teammate Bell in third.
“There are two people I really love right now, my pit crew and Kyle Larson,” Hamlin said to a round of boos from those in the stands.
Hamlin credited the past two victories to his pit crew.
“The pit crew just did an amazing job,” he said. “They won it last week, they won it this week. It’s all about them.”
Blaney had thought he was clear to his first-ever Darlington victory after getting by Reddick late. When he saw the caution flag for Larson’s spin, he said he thought, “Oh, no! I thought we had the race won.”
So did Byron, who sought was to become the first NASCAR driver in nearly 25 years to lead every lap on the way to victory. He got shuffled down the standings during the last round of green-flag pit stops and could not recover.
“It was looking like it was going to be a perfect race and we were going to lead every lap,” he said.
But once “we lost control, it was too late to get back up there,” Byron said.
Bad day
Kyle Larson, who won the Southern 500 here in 2023, had high hopes for a second Darlington win. But he slid into the inside wall coming off the second turn on lap three and went right to garage where his team worked the next couple of hours to get him back on track. Larson returned on lap 164 after falling 161 laps off the pace. Larson finished next to last in 37th.
Biffle’s ride
Greg Biffle, the last NASCAR driver to win consecutive Cup Series victories at Darlington in 2006 and 2007, drove the pace car for the Goodyear 400 on Sunday. Biffle has had an eventful few months, flying rescue missions with his helicopter into areas of the Southeast affected by devastating Hurricane Helene in September.
Biffle was planning a weeklong trip to the Bahamas when his phone started going off about people stranded in parts of Western North Carolina.
“I went to the hangar and the power was out,” Biffle said. “We got the hangar down open with the tug and got the helicopter out. Once I got in the air, I realized what had taken place.”
Biffle then flew the next 11 days from “sunup to sundown.”
“It was incredible,” Biffle said. “It was pretty tough going for the first week.”
Biffle won the Myers Brothers Humanitarian Award for his work.
Up next
The series goes to Bristol on April 13 before taking its traditional Easter break.
