Agent Nez Balelo of CAA, who represents Shohei Ohtani, told reporters this week that while an extension is “always” something to which they’ve been open, Ohtani has also “earned the right to play through the year, explore free agency” (link via ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez) As one would expect, Balelo spoke rather vaguely with regard to his star client’s future, stating that Ohtani is taking things “day by day” and downplaying the idea that the Angels’ lack of postseason berths during his time with the team would push the two-way sensation to a new team. “He’s so competitive, like all great players are, so of course they want to experience postseason, of course they’d love to be in the World Series,” said Balelo. “But is that the deciding factor? I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
At 28 years old, Ohtani has become one of the game’s brightest stars. He secured an All-Star berth in each of the past two seasons, winning American League MVP honors in 2021 and finishing runner-up in 2022 — while also grabbing a fourth-place finish in Cy Young voting. Since Opening Day 2021, he’s batted .265/.364/.554 with 80 homers and 37 steals in 1305 plate appearances, while at the same time pitching 296 1/3 innings of 2.70 ERA ball with a 31.4% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate. There’s been plenty of talk about the bidding war he could spark heading into his age-29 season, with speculation that Ohtani could sign the largest contract ever — perhaps even pushing $500MM in total value.
More on the Halos…
- Anthony Rendon is in Angels camp and feeling optimistic about the 2023 season despite requiring a second surgery in as many years last summer, writes Sarah Valenzuela of the Los Angeles Times. Rendon noted that returning even for a couple games late in the 2022 season brought him some peace of mind heading into the winter, and while his surgically repaired wrist wasn’t 100% throughout the winter, it’s feeling stronger now. He acknowledged that the Angels will likely be cautious with his workload and offered high praise for new teammate Gio Urshela — the trade acquisition who’ll play no small part in helping to spell Rendon when needed. Halos skipper Phil Nevin pointed out that Rendon already has one Comeback Player of the Year Award under his belt and expressed confidence that the former All-Star can return to form. Rendon, who signed a seven-year, $245MM deal with Anaheim following the 2019 season, has played in just 157 games since putting pen to paper. Fifty-two of those games came in the shortened 2020 season, when he turned in an outstanding .286/.418/.497 slash with solid defense at the hot corner. Since then, he’s played in just 105 of 324 possible games.
- Right-hander Jaime Barria is in the mix for the sixth spot in the Angels’ rotation, writes Sam Blum of The Athletic. He’ll join a group including Griffin Canning, Chase Silseth, Tucker Davidson and Chris Rodriguez in vying for that spot. As Blum outlines, that sixth-starter role could perhaps be best occupied by someone with Barria’s swingman experience, given that off-days will necessitate the sixth spot being skipped from time to time. Barria, who’s out of minor league options, figures to make the club one way or another this year, particularly given last season’s strong showing in a long relief role. In 79 1/3 frames, the 26-year-old posted a 2.61 ERA with a well below-average 17.1% strikeout rate but a strong 6% walk rate and a 40.9% grounder rate. Barria has never missed many bats but has typically displayed strong command en route to a career 4.09 ERA in 380 1/3 innings split fairly evenly as a starter (4.03 ERA, 56 appearances) and and a reliever (4.25 ERA, 44 appearances). He and the Angels avoided arbitration with a one-year, $1.05MM deal earlier this winter.
Time to head 1,160 miles north to achieve your dreams, Mr. Ohatani
Don’t bet on it.
hold your breath
Vancouver has an expansion team already?
you might want to remeasure the distances.
Geography is hard
Not in your lifetime or even in an alternate universe.
Or take the hour and a half drive south on I-5…
Or take the 3000 mile journey to PNC Park. Hey, it’s nice to dream
Ohtani definitely deserves free agency. If you count his professional years in Japan and the fact that he decided to enter early into mlb rather than when he could be a free agent then yea he deserves to hear from other clubs before signing a contract that’ll lock him in for 10 years.
Wherever he plays he’s going to get $50M a season. Money is not the issue, it’s winning and location. He wants to be on the west coast– so that is Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. Why would a big market player want to go to cold and rainy Seattle with its excessive travel and limited market? San Francisco, yes, the Dodgers yes, and San Diego– maybe. He loves southern California and the Angels and the fan support, so if this team is strong in the first half i expect him to stay. If this team tanks two months in he’ll be gone, and most likely to the Dodgers who are a winning franchise and local, and a big market. It’s the Angels or Dodgers.
He’s already turned down the Mariners. If he is going to leave the Angels because they can’t compete. My guess, and that guess is worth nothing, is he’ll go to the Dodgers.
The Mariners were his second choice after the Angels last time. The Mariners have a long-standing positive relationship with Japanese players, just ask Ichiro. The Mariners are in Win-Now mode and will be for at least the next few seasons. They have a solid and healthy farm system that has produced top tier talent recently. The Mariners have the money and salary space to accomplish it. Anybody who discounts the Mariners as being a likely destination for Shohei is just being defiant and willfully stubborn.
Who says M’s were his second choice? I do not believe he ranked his choices.
A lot of people tend to discredit how accommodating the Angels have been to Ohtani. The reason the Angels have a 6 man rotation was because of Ohtani, He would hit 3 days and take 3 days off from hitting to pitch a day when he began playing for the Angels. This was the routine he was accustomed to in Japan. I don’t believe there are a lot of teams that would have been so accommodating. It may be lost by most fans and reporters, but I don’t believe it is lost on Ohtani.
If I were him I’d play Bachelor and let all the teams woo me before I hand out my rose. Seriously though, he’s gonna get paid wherever he goes so it’s gonna be interesting to see what matters to him. He didn’t take the team that offered the most money the 1st time around so the connections to the players and staff and the presentation teams give him might make a difference for all we know.
There will be a lot of wining and dining for Ohtani. His world wide marketability plus his on field value are well beyond that of any other player in the game. Being joined with one the the true world wide MLB brands like the Dodgers or Yankees would be transformative for both the team and player. I’m just waiting to see how far above a half billion this will go.
There will be a lot of “whining” on this website as well when Steve Cohen lays his massive wallet (and balls) on the negotiating table and signs Mr. Ohtani to the richest contract in MLB history.
I don’t expect the Dodgers or Yankees to conceed this prize as easily as they have some others. No one since Babe Ruth has had so much more market value than anyone else in the game. I don’t see anyone other than these three teams as real possibilities. Ohtani will be looking for the biggest markets to build his value which will continue into retirement. This contract will shatter all previous records no matter who signs Ohtani. The Dodgers have signaled this is their play by letting everyone else walk and ignoring free agents from other teams in preperation.
I don’t believe the Dodger’s will seriously offer Ohtani a 10-12 year contract. The Dodgers decided to go cheap this year and the rest is just speculation at best. I wouldn’t put it past the Padres to rid themselves of Macho man Machado and Soto to make the Big Play to sign Ohtani.
Money alone won’t clinch a deal for Shohei. By now, he has toured all 29 other stadiums and sampled the off field attractions. He has to have definite opinions of each city as places to live and work for the next 8 to 12 years. However there have been no clues about his opinions. The only thing we know is that he is tired of missing the playoffs. He wants a solid contender that can afford to pay him and still maintain a competitive roster around him. Dodgers and Yanks certainly qualify as perennial contenders but we don’t know what he thinks of LA or NYC as places to live and work. Or Seattle and San Diego as well. I predict that whoever gets him will have to offer a record breaking contract but it won’t necessarily have to be the highest offer.
For the most part, chasing competitive teams is like chasing tornadoes. Dodgers and Yankees seem to be competitive year in and year out, but who else? Well, who else that’s going to pay? And who else can pay Ohtani and still be good?
As an Angel fan, I’d like to sign Ohtani with an opt out clause every two years. If he feels like the Angels are not going to be competitive, he can leave.
The only weapon the Angels have at this moment is a record breaking extension with the opt outs that you mention. I bet he would even give the Angels a discount and sign for less than 500 million.
We know the market size in all those cities.
We know where well established Japanese communities are located. We know which teams are big global brands and which teams are local/regional brands. All of these things will be considered. Think Michael Jordan instead of Aaron Judge. This will be a business merger with long term value.
One reason I can see Shohei going to NYC is to counter perceived East Coast bias in voting for MVP. He was reportedly upset about not winning the award this year although I am not sure of the context. Nuance gets lost in translation sometimes.
I think he may have been open to an extension all along. I think Moreno may have thought lets wait and see if he is healthy and repeat. The problem is the price keeps going up too. He then thought he would let the new owner decide. Now he wants to keep the team. Ohtani’s agent indicated he does not want to negotiate during the season. Ohtani said he is open to an extension before the season. I think he doesn’t like all the questions about his contract and would like to sign and get the focus back to baseball. I just hope Moreno doesn’t wait. Ohtani just said he is open to an extension before the season. This is the time to act.
He doesn’t want to be on the east coast– it’s too far from Japan. He had every opportunity to select the Yankees from the outset– he passed. Cohen will give him whatever he wants, but so will the Dodgers, Angels and Giants. The location in the country is not going to impact his individual awards. He’s vying for a Cy Young and MVP wherever he winds up.
@Marin, where was it reported he was upset about not winning MVP????
Tigers3232 – It was from a recent Phil Nevin video.
Carla, you do realize NYC is only 3 hours farther flying time from Japan, right? It’s not like he’d ever be driving across the country. Also, you seem to be forgetting that Eppler was the person that convinced Ohtani to come to the Angels. And Eppler is with what org now?
Halo11Fan – I like your idea about the opt outs if he is worried about the Angels future success. He may not want that though because he may not want the questions every time an opt out comes up. He clearly doesn’t want to talk about contract stuff. When you look at what his agent said, it looks to me like he wants to sign before the season starts because he wants to focus on baseball stuff. I don’t think the Angels have offered any extension yet. His agent indicated that negotiations past opening day could be a problem. He would like a long-term deal and he may not sign an extension after opening day. This would fly in the face of Ohtani wants to wait and see if the Angels are winning at the trade deadline and if they aren’t trade him . He is willing to negotiate NOW. He may not want to negotiate even if they are winning at the trade deadline. I see it as, sign him now to a long term contract or sign him as a free agent. The best chance to get an Ohtani extension is before opening day.
An extension is the Angels best chance. They only have to offer a Face saving contract. For the Angels, it probably wouldn’t have to exceed 500 guaranteed but it has to be substantially more than Trout money or he will lose Face. Face is a big cultural thing with Japanese. It means one’s self image and how others perceive you. The Angels did a good thing by tendering Shohei a record 30 million. It gave him nothing to complain about and he gained Face by setting another record. Gaining more Face is good. Losing Face is bad. Saving Face is essential.
When he was first brought up and struggled the east coast media, ESPN, MLB.com, etc, said he shouldn’t be in the major leagues and should focus on hitting or pitching because he is incapable of doing both. You think he wants to play in front of that type of misguided media?
snail123, I don’t think that’s correct that he took less from the Angels than what other teams offered. IIRC, the fact that he wasn’t a true FA limited any offered salary to the MLB minimum. Essentially every team in MLB had a chance since any team could’ve afford him. To your point though, the fact that he chose the Angels shows that was where he wanted to play.
Oh, I meant he didn’t take the team that offered the highest signing bonus. Teams were limited in what they could offer and I remember the Angels weren’t the highest offer.
Yeah, you’re right. He could’ve gotten a larger bonus, I forgot that teams were limited to their bonus pools. As it is though. He got something like a $2.3M bonus, which was about $1.2M less than the max allowed to the Rangers, who had the most to offer..
The Angles are the most disappointing team in baseball. High hopes always ending in failure.
Right. We all know how that speculation worked out with Trout.
Questionable roster at best
It’s always funny to read a Padres fan talk about a questionable roster. If anyone knows what a questionable roster looks like, it’s a Padres fan
@Sad11Fan The Padres have made the playoffs 2 times in the last 3 years. Care to tell me the last time the Angles played above .500 ball?
As a Dodgers fan, I have to admit the Padres have a formidable, not “questionable” roster.
And they have been terrible for most of this century, and most of their franchise history. What is sad is for any fan to come on a thread of another team and talk smack. But it’s especially sad for a Padres fan to do it.
The Padres have won 90 games once this century and that was back i. 2010. They have lost 90 games 8 times this century.
They know a lot more about bad rosters than good rosters.
Who are the Angles?
The sad truth is, every team has a holes. The better teams have less. But looking at the better rosters, Dodgers Yanks, Padres, etc., each have an area or two where they could stand an upgrade.
Before you keep talking about how good the Padres are, can they at least win 90 games first.
@Halo11Fan your bitterness is pathetic.
I’m bitter of the Padres. No one is bitter of the Padres.
They are up there, but the Padres and the Mariners have them solidly beat as being the biggest pretenders.
You’re right, the Angles are always obtuse. They rarely have the right angle to start the season.
Your Pythagorean theory is all hype… hypotenuse that is. Feels like 90° in the shade here.
I wish I was high on potenuse
The name says it all….
What did the triangle say to the circle?
You’re so pointless!
Billy Eppler signed him the first time. He’ll sign him again. Senga and Cohen’s wallet help too.
Senga is great. I’m tempted to put some money on him winning ROY. I hope he pitches lights out for the Mets.
Being competitive was also a big deal though, I think he skipped even talking to the Mariners despite being on his desired coast. If the Angels are anywhere close to competitive at the trading deadline they should be willing to give up some top prospects in big trades, a post season appearance would really help with resigning him.
That’s true, and I think there’s a greater chance he resigns with the Angels before any of the other west coast teams.
The Mariners were finalists for Ohtani the first time, dude, you’re thinking of some other team. The Yankees, for example.
Why would Ohtani want to play in small market Seattle and burden himself with all that travel when he can play for the Angels, Giants or Dodgers? Seattle can’t afford to give Ohtani $50M a year and still fill out their roster, but these other three cities can. Ohtani is not going to Seattle.
You might be right about where Ohtani lands and the Mariners payroll but, to call Seattle a small market is just factually incorrect.
@Carllafong, what his your obsession with the travel. You say it as tho MLB players are traveling by bus, train, or mule back. Aside from a handful of series amongst certain teams, all MLB travel requires flight. Any flight they re taking they re traveling in absolute comfort, travel is truly a non issue.
Probably the A’s then.
Fangraphs has seattle’s tv contract as the 7th biggest in the league. Kinda surprising given their record breaking playoff drought.
It is plainly apparent and obvious to anyone who is not fully drunk on the Angels fandom Kool-Aid that he is absolutely without a shadow of a doubt NOT signing an extension with the Angels. The final nail in that coffin was Arte Moreno deciding against selling the team. Read the interviews Shohei has given this Spring. He goes out of his way not to say anything positive about wanting to stay. Enjoy him while he’s still around.
Ignorant Son-of-a-b – Well his agent just said “Shohei Ohtani is open to potential negotiations with the Angels on a long-term extension during Spring Training, his agent, Nez Balelo, said Monday, but that it could be tough to negotiate during the season and that Ohtani has earned the right to test free agency if a deal can’t be reached.”
Hope Walsh doesn’t struggle coming back, TOS is no joke. Have a feeling Rendon will be at first a lot with Dury and Urshela seeing a lot of time at 3rd.
TOS is a vascular condition when the veins and nerves are pinched between the clavicle and the top rib. He had his top rib removed, so I don’t see it being an issue moving forward. It is a condition that typically affects pitchers and he said he feels he initially begin having issues back when he was a 2 way player. I am more optimistic about Walsh returning to form than Rendon. Who knows maybe this is the year when multiple things go right for the Angels.
Rumor theories are the same as conspiracy theories
I kept hearing for a year and a half how Mike Trout was going to test free agency. They even said he was a lock to go to Philadelphia.
I don’t know what is going to happen. Ohtani may go, he may stay, but i do know every opinion regarding his future plans has no value.
I’d sign Ohtani to 50 million a year with opt out clauses every two year. If he doesn’t feel like the team has a chance to make the playoffs. He can opt out.
The Angels have paid Rendon almost $91 million dollars over the past 3 seasons to average 52 games per year. In the cumulative one full season he has played in Anaheim is numbers are still below his norms in Washington. Seems like both Texas and the Dodgers dodged a huge bullet here
Rendon led the Angels in WAR in 2020. Its disingenuous to lump that season in with the last two.
@Halo
Why should he dilute the rant with facts? Lol.
Rafael Devers has averaged 118 games over the past three seasons!
YBC, underrated comment
Using a shortened season as a high bar is just sad…
Using the shortened season data and dividing by three is ignorant.
Being an Angels fan is depressing.
@Halo11Fan Sorry I’m dense, what’s wrong with including his 2020 stats?? Did you want those stats to be pro-rated to a full season or something?? I mean he put up what he put up, I don’t see where RSox was so misguided.
@ISoaB 2020 was a truncated season of 60 games as you already know. It’s the same as saying Aaron Judge has averaged only 111 games over the past three seasons (27, 148, and 157) and using that to support your opinion. “Why would the Yankees sign him to that megadeal when he misses SO MANY games a season?!”
Did you miss the part about dividing by 3?
He virtually played a full season in 2020…So why include the totals and still divide by three? It’s either disingenuous or ignorant.
Let’s say I bowl four frames and bowl an 80. Then I bowl a 200, then another 200. Who in there right mind would say I’m averaging 160?
RSOX is not misguided based upon the last 3 seasons.
All we can do is hope that the injury bug/ bad luck is behind Rendon and he has a Rendon type season.
Translation: He gone.
Yes it’s definitely looking like it will be the Dodgers, Padres or the Mets for Ohtani. If Ohtani is smart he’ll stay out west where he’s had success. He doesn’t seem that comfortable in NY. Basically he’ll go where the money is. The Halo’s should do everything in their power to work out an extension with him right now.
Not sure about the Mets being in on him. They can afford him, and will probably offer a huge deal. But it takes two to tango.
When he chose the Angels it was reported the other 6 finalists were all the west coast teams except the A’s, and the only other finalists being the Cubs and Rangers. He may have changed his mind, but initially there seemed to be an aversion to east coast teams.
That aversion was before he had come to play in the MLB. He has had an opportunity to play and perhaps eased his mind about playing elsewhere.
I would think he would at the very least be open minded enough to listen to just about anyone.
I agree. That’s why I wrote he may have changed his mind. But that is pure conjecture. When he originally signed, the clear preference was for west coast teams. And right now, that’s all we have to go on, since he hasn’t stated any preference yet, nor said that he’d changed his mind and was open to an east coast team.
1972 – I think it’s more logistics for Ohtani than an aversion. He lives in Japan which is a much easier flight from the west coast than it is from the east coast. Although I’ve not personally spoken with Ohtani, I believe that might weigh into his decision some.
Everything is conjuncture. At this point isn’t it all about what we read or hear?
I may be reading between the lines a bit too much, but when an agent says he has earned the right to become a free agent, that typically means “show me the money”
I don’t see it that way.
He lives in Japan in the off season. That has little to do with where he lives in season. Many Japanese players have played on the East Coast.
1972 – It’s all conjecture for sure. As we see all to often with Boras, the agent’s job is to suggest there is enormous competition for his client to drive the price up. With Ohtani, that isn’t a stretch. It will be fun to watch play out this year. But at the end of it, I believe he will stay on the west coast somewhere.
His preference for the west coast was clear in the first go round. That is not conjecture, and again, it’s all we have to go on at this point. Otherwise we would be assuming he’s changed his mind. That’s possible, but there’s no evidence to suggest he has.
captainjudge99 – “Yes it’s definitely looking like it will be the Dodgers, Padres or the Mets for Ohtani.”
What are you basing that on?
CaptainJudge99 – Ohtani said he is open to an extension in spring training. I think he wants to get this over with and get back to baseball questions. His agent indicated he does not want to negotiate in the season.
His agent said that he has earned the right to test FA. When he came over from Japan he gave up a lot of money to play in MLB. He chose the Angels because they guaranteed him that he could be a two-way player. He also indicated that he felt comfortable with the Angels. If he doesn’t sign with the Angels then I expect it will be the NY Cohens or the Dodgers(though the Dodgers don’t seem comfortable with a 10-12 year contract).
I don’t see him going to the east coast. I predict that if he doesn’t extend with the Angels, I think he goes to the Giants. That’s pure speculation on my part. I feel strongly though that unless the Angels are a clear playoff team by the trade deadline, he will either be traded, or will leave after the season in FA.
It would be kind of silly to say as a player he wants the freedom to negotiate with all 30 MLB teams as a free agent and then arbitrarily limit himself to the handful of West Coast teams.
kingken67, It’s not as you portray it. It isn’t 30 teams versus west coast only teams. If you consider the point of negotiating with all 30 teams, which is to get the best deal, the reality is there’s nowhere near 30 teams being involved. It’s really an issue of big budget teams, with a chance to win. It’s probably less than 10 teams, and more like 6 or 7.
It’s going to come down to competitive teams that are willing, and able to offer a big contract. If a guy can get the deal he wants from a team meeting that criteria in his preferred location, why even consider somewhere else? He’s going to get paid no matter where he goes.
Why? Do you think any free agent is interested in signing with all 30 teams?
The fact of the matter is he’s been a free agent and wanted to play on the West Coast. He’s already turned down every AL team other than the Angels.
Go back and reread what KingKen said, He wants the freedom to negotiate.
KingKen did not say he WILL negotiate with all 30 teams. It is a general blanket statement. That is what free agency is, the opportunity to negotiate with any perspective team.
Let’s all be real, if the Marlins somehow outbid all others, by a hefty margin, then Shohei would at the very least go and meet with them, and have serious discussions.
Nothing I wrote had anything to do with Ohtani not being able to negotiate. What you’re missing from kingken’s post is the clear implication that west coast teams do not have a geographical advantage because there are 30 teams that would like to sign him. Had he wrote that maybe Ohtani has changed his mind about location, I would have agreed.
Glossing over the insightful, that his market is probably limited to 10 teams or less, to state the the obvious. that free-agency is the ability to negotiate with any of 30 team is what you’re doing.
You state that you want to be real, and then lay out a highly improbable hypothetical situation. No team is blowing away the field with an offer so massive that would lure Ohtani to a place he doesn’t prefer. Estimates have bids at around $500M. Maybe it will go above that, but no team is offering him $600M which is what it would take to make every other team give up.
If you want to get real, know that only 10 or fewer teams have the wherewithal to sign Ohtani, and no team is blowing the rest of the field out of the water with a bid. He’ll have similar very high offers from a number of teams, and location preference will probably be the deciding factor.
I disagree with you the field is limited to 10 or fewer teams. You can look at what the Rangers did 2 off seasons ago when they went after Seager, no one saw that coming before his last season with the Dodgers.
I’m counting the Rangers as one of the teams with any chance at signing Ohtani, especially since they were one of the 7 finalist the first go round. But there’s obviously a big difference between a $325M deal and a $500M deal.
But there are a ton of teams that either don’t operate on a big enough budget, like the A’s, Reds, Guardians, Brewers, Royals, Rays, Marlins, Pirates, D’backs, and Nat’s, or teams that aren’t going to be anymore competitive than the Angels have been, like the Rockies, or Tigers. And there’s teams that probably could get involved, but just don’t operate that way, like the Braves, Cards or Astro’s.
I still believe he has a west coast preference. Nothing’s been said to indicate otherwise, so I think that hurts teams like the Met’s, Phillies, Red Sox, and Yankees. It’s possible my 10 team estimate is low, but I doubt it’s very much more than that.
The Dodgers were plenty comfortable with the Mookie Betts contract. It all depends on the player.
Thanks for the Angels Notes. Any plans for updates on Cumberland, Arlington or St. Petersburg?
Rendon will be on the IL before you can put your underwear on. Seriously this guy is a black hole on the team. Deal him for anything to anyone that will have him. Hey!!! Nationals? Want your boy back? This guy is like Strasburg without the accomplishments.
Did the Nationals even attempt to re-sign Rendon after 2019 ??? I got the impression they let him walk. I’ve heard odd things about his mindset, something about not even being a fan of the game, he just plays because he’s good at it and it’s an easy way to make a buck. I’m not enthusiastic about that kind of attitude, but I understand it’s pretty commonplace amongst gifted athletes who can play these kid games in their sleep.
Rendon has been asleep for 3 years now.
What a troll. If you ar3 going to be a troll, at least be accurate.
The Ohtani story will dominate the year. Every winning streak, every tough loss, every big market the team visits.
I’m already sick of it and it hasn’t even really started yet.
H.H.
Yep. We heard it with Trout. We hear it every time Trout or Rendon is injured, and we are going to hear it all year with Ohtani.
It’s old. And no one ever has anything new to say.
Ohtani’s going to look good in Tampa Bay Rays Columbia Blue.
Any thoughts on how the owners newly created Economic Reform Committee and issues with Diamond Sports and potential bankruptcy effects contract negotiations? Also, as the CBA expires after the ‘26 season, is the committee preparing to set the stage for negotiating a salary cap/ceiling/floor?
If Sho doesn’t sign before the trade deadline, the Halos HAVE to move him. They can’t let him go or take the chance of him going for free. Really hope it doesn’t make it that far, but his agent seems pretty hell bent on getting that percentage.
If the Angels are out of it and he’s not going to sign, they have to trade him. Both conditions must be true.
I wrote the same sentiment before I read your comment.
It would be interesting to see what they could get from a WS contender for a rental of his caliber. No one but a serious contender would give much.
This is a tough spot for the Angels if they are not in the race by the trade deadline. If that’s the case, they should trade him to get something in return but the fanbase would go nuts. If they don’t trade him, Ohtani will leave as a free agent based on his desire to win, and the Angels get nothing in return.
Really I think the only way Ohtani stays is if we make the playoffs and the offer is substantial.
Ugh. Why are they giving Barria another chance to start? Keep him in the bullpen, he’s shown he’s effective there.
It most likely won’t be just Barria in the 6th spot. As stated above, he’d make the easiest transition to start out of any in the pen. I’d assume it would be someone else when he pitched a couple plus innings within the recent few days.
Barria and Canning are the two most logical choices for the 6th starter/swingman.
Not including the team you root for, where would you love to see Ohtani sign if you had your wish? I’m a Met fan, but think it would be fantastic if the Orioles signed him. Their future is already bright, and he would fast track them to contender status.
The Brisbane Bandits. They play just down the road.
It’s good when Hall of Fame players spend their entire career with one team.
That’s pretty much my standard answer for any free agent.
Ohtani will get 1 billion contract. Hes literary two players. Think about it.
Who would pay 500 million to a DH, who is good, but not a great hitter?
As a lifelong Angels fan, I am truly excited about Ohtani. If by some miracle he signs an extension before the season, then that will be great news. If he doesn’t, it’s hard to imagine a better year for the Angels to benefit from his effort. Shohei is in tip, top prime shape, healthy and ready to establish his fair market value for a once-in-a-100 year talent. I’ll miss Shohei beyond 2023 if he departs, but if he helps bring the Angels a second World Championship I’ll cope just fine!
BTW if winning doesn’t motivate the Angels players to help in keeping Ohtani, nothing will
I think there’s some overthinking of the Angels’ sixth spot because it’s hard enough to build a solid traditional 5 man rotation. And if they had a 5 man rotation, they’d be as solid as any in the Majors, with viable young options on the depth chart. I’ve seen Angels blogs making it out as some kind of crucial move, as if not signing Michael Wacha was some kind of travesty. Gimme a break. Most teams that are solid enough 1-4 will audition their youth if they don’t decide to sign a solid veteran to a one year contract to be the fifth starter. I think the Angels are in a great position to bounce back into contention just with their starting pitching alone. If they had the players they added this offseason in 2022, I would bet they’d have a playoff spot. When your first 5 starters all have ERA’s under 4.00 in June, you’re doing something right. That’s why I think the Angels will be in the pennant race in 2023 with all of their middle of the roster additions.
Joel Sherman last week in the NYPost had a great way to think about Ohtani and his value by comparing what he did last season to two players who matched him statistically….on the pitching side Ohtani put up almost identical stats to those of Carlos Rodón. On the batting side, Shohei’s stats matched up very close to what Austin Riley put up. So basically you’re getting both those guys, but all in one player.
This upcoming season Rodón is set to make $27 million and Riley $21 mill. So together $48 million is very close to the $50 million most are projecting for an annual salary for Shohei. (Looking at WAR though, it’s not as close with Rodón last season at 5.4 WAR and Riley at 6.5 WAR for a total of 11.9 WAR to Shohei’s 9.6 WAR. [I assume most of the difference there is because Riley plays 3B while Shohei is DHing.])
Anyway I know it’s an over-simplification and basically just a thought exercise but I still found those comps interesting as a way to ascertain Ohtani’s value fwiw.
IG son of a B…I get the comparison for maybe 3 to 4 years, but there is no way Shohei can go 10 years being dominant in BOTH.
I love watching him play and his love and enthusiasm for baseball. Unless Arte is willing to pay the luxury tax, because let’s face it whoever signs Shohei will being paying $$$ on the luxury taxes, he isn’t staying.
If it was my money, I would insist on opt out clauses, but Shohei would reject it in all likelihood. I do not see him being an Angel in 2024, and I get it form both sides perspective.
I understand you are throwing it out there to get people thinking. So that’s my 2 cents worth.
That’s a rational way of looking at it. The 2-in-1 uniqueness also frees up another spot on your 26/40 man roster. Downside is you lose 2 players when he goes on DL.
These comments remind me before Trout signed the extension. Takes me back to hearing so many broken hearts. I’m ready to hear them again when he resigns