Ohtani to join Dodgers on 10-year, $700M deal
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
Shohei Ohtani signed a historic 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday.
Ohtani posted to Instagram on Saturday saying he would play for his former team’s crosstown rival starting next season after spending six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels.
“I pledge to always do what’s best for the team and always continue to give it my all to be the best version of myself. Until the last day of my playing career, I want to continue to strive forward not only for the Dodgers but for the baseball world,” Ohtani wrote.
The contract is the largest in baseball history by more than $250 million, topping the 12-year, $426.5 million that now-former teammate Mike Trout signed in 2019. The $70 million average annual salary also easily eclipses the previous record of $43.3 million for Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer.
The deal does not include any opt-outs, a source told ESPN. Another source said “the majority” of Ohtani’s salary will be deferred in order to mitigate what the Dodgers are charged toward their competitive balance tax payroll on a yearly basis, giving them more freedom to add to their payroll over the life of Ohtani’s contract. The deferrals, according to the source, were Ohtani’s idea.
Ohtani, 29, is the first player in baseball history to be named unanimous MVP on multiple occasions, an honor bestowed upon him twice over the past three years. During that stretch, he defied conventionality as he exceled as both a pitcher and a hitter while becoming Major League Baseball’s first two-way player since Babe Ruth dabbled in both roles more than a century ago.
Only a tender elbow could stop him.
Ohtani learned of a new tear in his ulnar collateral ligament — his second such injury in five years — on Aug. 23, near the tail end of a third consecutive standout season for the Angels. Nearly four weeks later, he underwent what was vaguely described as some hybrid version of Tommy John surgery. The man who performed it, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, wrote in a statement that Ohtani would be ready to hit “without any restrictions come opening day of 2024” and resume his role as a two-way player by 2025, but details of his procedure were elusive.
Ohtani’s highly anticipated run at free agency also played out in secrecy, with little publicly known about his preferences beyond a desire to continue his two-way aspirations.
His Instagram post included an apology for “taking so long to come to a decision.” He also publicly thanked the Angels and their fans.
“I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone involved with the Angels organization and the fans who have supported me over the past six years, as well as to everyone involved with each team that was part of this negotiation process,” Ohtani wrote. “Especially to the Angels fans who supported me through all the ups and downs, your guys’ support and cheer meant the world to me. The six years I spent with the Angels will remain etched in my heart forever.”
The Dodgers improved from 8-1 to 6-1 to win the World Series following Ohtani’s announcement and are now the consensus favorite ahead of the Atlanta Braves at sportsbooks around the nation.
Ohtani had joined the Angels in 2018, leaving Japan early as an international free agent and significantly hindering his earning potential on the open market.
All of MLB practically lined up to sign him, but Ohtani, to the surprise of many, chose the Angels and the comfort they might provide him. He struggled to adapt throughout his first spring training but flourished as a pitcher and hitter during the first two months of his rookie season in 2018. A Grade 2 UCL sprain discovered in early June 2018 forced him to shut it down as a pitcher — and eventually prompted his first Tommy John surgery, after non-invasive treatment failed — but did not prevent him from winning the American League Rookie of the Year Award.
Ohtani navigated the 2018 and 2019 seasons primarily as a designated hitter, with an .884 OPS and 40 home runs in 210 games.
He then struggled mightily as both a pitcher and a hitter during the COVID-19-shortened season of 2020. Those struggles triggered a transformative offseason. Ohtani spent the ensuing winter refining his diet, studying his biomechanics on the mound and seeing an array of live pitching in the batter’s box then watched it translate into a mesmerizing display in spring training of 2021.
Under general manager Perry Minasian and then-manager Joe Maddon, the Angels eliminated prior restrictions that prevented Ohtani from hitting around his starting pitching days and essentially gave him full autonomy over his playing time.
It helped unlock one of the most impressive three-year runs ever.
From 2021 to 2023, Ohtani slashed .277/.379/.585 while accumulating 124 home runs, 22 triples and 57 stolen bases as a hitter. As a pitcher, he won 34 games and posted a 2.84 ERA in 74 starts, striking out 542 batters in 428 1/3 innings. By weighted runs created plus, he was more productive than Juan Soto, Freddie Freeman and Bryce Harper. By fielding independent pitching, he was better than Max Scherzer, Blake Snell and Dylan Cease. Only Aaron Judge‘s AL-record-breaking 62-homer season in 2022 prevented Ohtani from three consecutive MVPs.
This offseason, teams lined up for the chance to sign a relatively young free agent who boasts an unprecedented skill set — prodigious power, plus speed, elite arm strength and the ability to spin devastating breaking pitches — and unique marketability. Many were intimidated by the immense price tag and concerned about his ability to bounce back as a pitcher, but many also put that aside for the opportunity to land the most unique free agent in baseball history.
Ultimately, the Dodgers won out.
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani hit two homers in an 11-5 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night, emphatically ending the three-time MVP’s longest homer drought since joining the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ohtani led off the bottom of the first with his 24th homer, hammering Landen Roupp‘s fourth pitch 419 feet deep into the right-field bleachers with an exit velocity of 110.3 mph.
The slugger had been in a 10-game homer drought since June 2, going 10-for-40 in that stretch with no RBIs, although he still had an eight-game hitting streak during his power outage.
Ohtani led off the sixth with his 25th homer, sending Tristan Beck‘s breaking ball outside the strike zone into the bleachers in right. He also moved one homer behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the overall major league lead.
Dodgers fans brought him home with a standing ovation as Ohtani produced his third multihomer game of the season and the 22nd of his career.
Ohtani reached base four times and scored three runs in his first four at-bats, drawing two walks to go with his two homers.
Ohtani hadn’t played in 10 straight games without hitting a homer since 2023 in the final 10 games of his six-year tenure with the Los Angeles Angels.
Ohtani had slowed down a bit over the past two weeks after he was named the NL Player of the Month for May with a formidable performance, racking up 15 homers and 28 RBIs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
BOSTON — Hunter Dobbins had quite the week.
First, he said last weekend that he would rather retire than pitch for the Yankees because his father was drafted by New York twice before being traded.
Then, he went out and beat the Yankees.
A few days after his comments about never wanting to pitch for New York, he had to defend his dad’s story about being drafted by the Yankees in response to a New York Post article that cited multiple official databases and the Yankees’ own records that couldn’t confirm Lance Dobbins ever played with the organization.
On Saturday night, Dobbins (4-1) followed up by going six shutout innings in Boston’s 4-3 victory over New York, his second win over the Yankees in less than a week.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m more worried about just the win column, whether it’s against them or anybody. My job is to try and help this team win as many ballgames as we can, and pitch in meaningful playoff baseball games. That’s what I’m more focused on.”
But he realizes what it means to the fan base in this longtime rivalry, with the Red Sox fans heard chanting about the Yankees outside the park before he spoke in an interview room.
“Yeah, I love being able to perform and get those wins for the fans here,” he said. “They deserve it. It’s a great city, passionate fan base, so being able to get those wins — especially twice in one week — means a lot and looking forward to trying to build on that going forward.”
In his victory over New York last Sunday, Dobbins held the Yankees to three runs over five innings, two on a first-inning homer by Aaron Judge.
On Saturday night, Judge went 0-for-3 against him, striking out twice on curveballs.
“It was just kind of scouting,” Dobbins said of his game plan against New York’s slugger after Garrett Crochet struck him out three times in the series opener Friday.
“Crochet has an electric fastball. I can throw it hard, but the shape isn’t quite as elite,” he said. “So we knew we had better weapons to go at him with, so I felt like we did a good job of kind of keeping a balanced attack throughout the order.”
Dobbins struck out five and gave up only two singles Saturday.
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