The Dodgers recently signed Shohei Ohtani to a 10-year, $700MM contract, though with heavy deferrals that make the net present value significantly less than that. He was reportedly discussing similar deals with clubs like the Giants and Blue Jays but Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times reports that Angels’ owner Arte Moreno did not want to match those offers.
As mentioned, the deal with the Dodgers is heavily deferred, with Ohtani set to make just $2MM annually during the course of the deal. He will then received $68MM per year for the 10 years after he has played the seasons covered by the contract. That brings down the net present value, with the league valuing it at just over $460MM while the MLBPA has it at $437,830,563. Farhan Zaidi, the president of baseball operations of the Giants, recently revealed that the club offered Ohtani essentially the same deal he accepted from the Dodgers. The Blue Jays were “right there,” according to a report from Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.
All reports indicated that Ohtani and his reps were driving a lot of the negotiations. It was apparently Ohtani’s idea to have such an unusual contract structure, which he proposed as it would allow the signing club more financial freedom in the short term to build a winning club around him. The Dodgers, Giants and Blue Jays were all seemingly willing to meet his ask in comparable ways, but he chose the Dodgers and their unparalleled track record of recent success.
The Angels, however, don’t appear to have been at the final table. Per the report from Harris, Ohtani’s agent Nez Balelo reached out to them towards the end of the process and gave them a chance to convince Ohtani to stay. But Moreno was reportedly unwilling to match the offer Ohtani eventually signed. “It’s a place that he really loved to play. He loved the people there, everything. So we didn’t want to miss the idea of giving them an opportunity,” Balelo said “But at the end, it just wasn’t going to work.”
As Harris points out, it’s not clear Ohtani would have seriously considered a return to Anaheim even if they were willing to match the asking price. But the fact that they were not willing to do so seems to eliminated any chances of a reunion. It’s unknown what kind of final offer the Angels did make.
Moreno has generally been unafraid to spend big on star players, giving big deals to players like Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Anthony Rendon. It’s interesting that he decided to pull the reins on the Ohtani chase, though it’s unknown exactly why or how close they were.
The club will now have to enter a post-Ohtani world and try to chart a course forward without him. General manager Perry Minasian has made it clear that the club is not rebuilding and is not trading Trout. In 2023, they ran their payroll up against the competitive balance tax, ultimately staying narrowly beneath it. Roster Resource pegs their 2024 CBT number at $168MM at the moment, almost $70MM below next year’s base threshold. That should give them plenty of room to make some bold strikes, likely to upgrade the pitching staff. Despite having both Ohtani and Trout on the roster for the past six years, the Angels haven’t finished above .500 since 2015, made the playoffs since 2014 or won a postseason game since 2009.
Ohtani wasn’t going back to Angels, he wants to play in the playoffs
@ Zerb
No, he wanted outrageous $ to play 5 more games.
Stop stop they’re already dead
“Please check my medicalert bracelet.”
We were so close to ending the day without another Ohtani article.
You have a choice another Notani article or a Taylor Swift article take your choice.
Arte could have extended him looong ago for much less…They had him for 6 years.
He was always going to free agency he was signed on a international deal and got a 3 million dollar bonus. Pretty much a minor league deal until the arbitration years. He could’ve waited and went through the posting process, but he knew he was going to get paid regardless.
Wonder Dog, I don’t know why you think he was pre-destined for free agency..You have the ability to extend ANY player you have for 6 years!
Doesn’t matter what I think. I would say he has 700 million reasons why.
Having the opportunity to extend is one thing, however, the ability to extend is quite different.
Bacon Breakfast Burrito
Ohtani is fragile. Plus, his contact skills prioritize quality over quantity to a degree that will be bad when the aging curve hits (like Stanton-ish). Paying for MVP value would be great for four more seasons, but not for decades.
I love the player; good for the Dodgers. I hope the Angels can use this to solidify the franchise’s weaknesses and become a perennial competitor. It would be great if they brought in someone fixated on revamping the minor system. This is one area where they lag behind a lot of teams. Then, when there is talent stuffing the field and knocking on the door, find a FA star, an ace, and a closer. The window opens for at least 5+ years.
You nailed it. I am fine with Arte not offering to match, but if he was serious he would have made an offer a long time ago. 2 weeks before Opening Day 2023 he told the press he hadn’t even talked with him yet. That says everything about their level of interest. Again, that’s okay, it’s his business, but this was never to be.
Spot on. How do we come away with nothing? You have to work pretty hard to screw this up and they did.
The reason Ohtani chose the Angels 2017
mlb.com/amp/news/shohei-ohtani-agrees-to-deal-with…
He chose the Angels over the Dodgers because the National League did not have a DH.
The deal fell apart wheb Moreno didn’t want to own the team for another ten years while also being stuck with Minasian.
YBC, Arte can throw Minasian out the door head first anytime he wants to though right? I would like to see what Billy Beane would do with them!
Billy Beane couldn’t do any better without control. Moreno interferes at the wrong times. You have to let the GM manage– that’s why he’s there.
Carla, I know you are an old time Halo fan…And yes Arte messes up everything…But something has to give…Arte might own the team for 30 more years! We can’t wait that long for a title…Trout will be past his prime in 12 more years!
Arte Moreno makes all the baseball decisions Minasian is his puppet Moreno was the one who didn’t wanna trade Ohtani he knew Shohei wasn’t coming back we could’ve got 6 prospects. Name me one GM that Moreno hired who has major league experience as general manager name me one. Reagan. DiPoto. Eppler. Minasian. Who’s next Homer Simpson? When Krispy Kreme is in the concession stand Mmmmm donuts
You are wrong, unless all the other teams have a Miniasian as a GM no one was going to give six prospects or players for a rental!!!
Um…Arte is currently 76 years old. So, yeah, I guess…if he lives to 106…
That could’ve been the problem, because he was a opt out if the front office changed or Arte didn’t want to go over the first tax, they can compete with the dodgers if Arte would be willing to spend or build a front office team that has a clue.
The first luxury tax line has nothing to do with success. Why fans ever bring that up is beyond me. If the rays can make the playoffs in the toughest division and stay competitive for the last decade + the angels can in a much weaker division with a payroll twice the size.
@iverbure I did mention a better front office, I brought up the luxury tax line, because that was ohtani’s demands to field a competitive team so it kind of matters. He also knows that it’s not going to happen moreno had six years to convince Him to stay. Why does ohtani have even have that stipulation in his contract, because he wants a team that’s committed, not someone that’s trying to run a profitable business so he can sell it.
The same weak division that teams have won the last couple World Series ? AL west is tougher than the AL east
You say a weaker division, what Division in the AL that make the WS more than the West? Houston and now the World Champion Rangers
Sorry you can’t blame any of these GM’s. He goes through a new one every two years. Minasin tried to trade Ohtani 2 years ago and Arte shot him down. Tried to trade him this year and was shot down. It’s not the GM’s it’s Arte Moreno who is the problem.
They were unsuccessful with the two best players of this generation. They’re a cursed franchise, even the Mets are baffled at the mediocrity of this team. You’d think the Angels purposely tank just to get better in the longterm. Problem is they have acquired many good pieces over the years but at the wrong times and at the wrong prices. GM should be fired
They always have a top 10 payroll which meets Arte’s business needs for a baseline level of competiiiveness, but the problems on the baseball side are lack of effective strategic direction (it’s the same every year based on mediocre players all achieving their 5% chance of hitting their ceiling in that specific year, namely SPs) and a puzzling 15+ years of a bottom ranked minor league system. And Sam Blum’s summer article on their lack of investments in development is a problem too.
You actually believe Tampa actually offered that package? Wow…
App jumped, wrong comment
They don’t purposely tank because they have a greedy owner who isn’t willing to lose money for a couple of years.
Smart. Now they have to use the money that wasn’t spent (they have approximately $75mil before the threshold) to build a winning club.
Need to invest in the farm. F everything else
They are smart. now trade trout and start again
This has been said many times so I’m surprised to read your comment: They can’t trade Trout without his consent. He has a full no-trade clause in his contract.
I didn’t know that actually
Like Trout wouldn’t okay a trade to, say, the Yankees, Mets or Braves?
Mets are garbage so Trout knows he wouldn’t win a championship there. Yankees don’t want to pay an aging washed up has been 40m a year for the next decade. Braves pay players small salaries somehow so Trout would be out of their price range. I could see Trout going to the Phillies
How dumb are you? Trout cannot be traded unless he request to be traded. He has a NO TRADE IRON CLAD CLAUSE in his contract!!!
For every team he has a no trade clause?
Angels never made the playoffs with him. They had to move in another direction.
Yes, but that train left the station two-years ago in the wrong direction because Moreno was the engineer in charge. We got nothing for Ohtani– i’s impossible.
Report: Pirates Did Not Match Dodgers’ Offer For Ohtani
Then why didn’t they trade him at the deadline? Wasn’t the reason in keeping him the whole year was to show they wanted to resign him? Then they do not meet the criteria in order to do so? What a mess of an organization, missed out on a bunch of blue chip prospects and lost out on Ohtani without even trying!
Nope! They wouldn’t of got much at the deadline. They were only 3 ga.mes out at the time, and the best chance of resigning him was to make it. To late now, but it was the prudent play at the deadline.
That said, 70m avv differed or not, it’s totally acceptable to let it go. That’s just stupid money for a DH that will pitch for 3/4 years. He’s gonna have to give up on 1 pretty soon, and I gotta believe it will be pitching.
It’s just not true. Tampa Bay offered four players at the deadline that included the #6 MLB prospect who is a stud, 20-year old third baseman who is going to be a star. And three other players. They should have traded him at the deadline 1 1/2 years ago– they would have gotten 8 elite prospects from the Dodgers. A– Ohtani wound up there anyway and B– the Angels knew they weren’t going to be able to re-sign him. The world knew. The Dodgers were willing to pay because they would have had Ohtani for two years of Playoffs. Moreno refused to trade with the Dodgers.
Nice Carl, hindsight is 20/20, but Arte would of never done this. Right or wrong, get over it. I personally think he was right not to trade him. I don’t think anyone wants to go down as trading, the so called best player ever. How’d that work out for the Bo Sox Ruth? Terrible.
Prospects are generally just that majority of the time. You keep the best so called ever.
The fans weren’t going to be happy unless you brought him back and made the playoffs and even then still probably weren’t going to be happy with a first round exit.
Ohtani probably wasn’t going to resign with the angels unless he knew who the owner was and that wasn’t a commitment Moreno was willing to make for a decade.
However you look at it the angels were in a no win situation. The legacy of trading the best player on the planet is one that gets you criticized for decades even if it’s what’s best for the team and fans always say things like go all in try and win while you have the star. They did and it and failed and in typical fan fashion they changed their mind after it didn’t work and asked why they didn’t trade him. No winning with these people.
I’m sure Artie will sell the team in the next couple of years now, Trout will be traded and the new regime will want to replace Perry and co. Angels future is full of uncertainty. If only Artie sold a few years back I wonder where we’d be…
I hope you’re right, but I don’t believe he’ll sell the team. He’s 77 and he loves baseball. Knows nothing about the game, but he loves it.
Cool. It was a BS contract. It gives the Dodgers at least 100 million extra cash flow over the next 2 and a half years.
It makes a mockery of the game. I’m glad the Angels were not part of it.
Lol at the Angels not being a mockery of the game.
The Angels are the only team in baseball to never lose 100 games, and they have never lost more than 95.
I have a feeling you don’t understand what the word mockery means.
I don’t know about the mockery thing but, they were smart not to match, differed or not. Is the best hitting DH worth almost doubled the contract of the rest? No! Oh, but he’ll pitch for a few more year’s. Great! Love the player, but most hate the process. That’s the current CBA. Spend all you want, but u have to pay on the tax line.
It was a mockery when the Angels put all those players on waivers last year. They could have changed the outcome of the wildcard, divisions and playoffs. I’m glad those players fell on their face.
The Dodgers have 100 million extra cash flow the next two and a half years and that makes a mockery of the system as well. I hope Ohtani falls on his face.
I’m very hopeful both of these smart, but ridiculous actions are going to be addressed in the next CBA.
By the way. The 46 million is a fair salary, it’s not the tax. However, the two million dollars a year is a joke. On July 1st 2026, the Dodgers have to start accounting for the difference.
So they get 100 million extra to spend until then, and they’ll likely pull an accounting trick when that deadline hits.
If the Padres had that extra cash flow, they would have never traded Soto, or taken out that loan to meet payroll.
That makes a mockery of the CB portion of the CBT.
Yes u have a point, and I think they will on the cba. Not so much for the Angels, but for the small market teams, they absolutely should.But,I don’t hope Ohtani falls on his face, but only Dodgers. 😉
I understand.
If Ohtani was getting paid 30 million bucks, I’d root for him. But 2 million is a bridge too far.
Why do the padres trade for Soto if that situation were even possible? The easy solution is just to do what normal teams do and keep their prospects who are generally better cheaper players anyway
Yes, this is a great day for us Angel fans. We lost our two best players and listened to our management team explain why it was okay we got nothing for him– just before they explained how great our rotation is and we just need to add one starter. A great day indeed.
carl – You’re right. Soon Moreno will hand Minasian the annual offseason press conference script that will read something like this: “We believe we have a competitive team going into Spring Training with the tweaks we’ve made this offseason. We are confident in our young pitching staff and new young position players. Our veterans are all healthy and ready to contribute. We plan to compete in 2024.”
You can’t have a competitive team with that bullpen.
Ohtani is irrelevant.
When Ohtani had his first Arm injury, it took two years to get back on the mound and he wasn’t much of a hitter. He’s not getting any younger.
I wrote a month ago that the Angels are not the right team. He took up the DH slot and forced the team to go to a six man rotation. For the Angels, he’s not worth the money.
The only reason to sign him to 46 million a year was for marketing reason. So Arte finally makes a baseball move and people are upset. Go figure.
This will be Artie’s ultimate legacy of how bad he has screwed the up this club not retaining arguably the best player to ever play the game. Sounded like Ohtani may have wanted to come back had they matched. I’m so done with this team and their incompetence and poor execution across all levels of baseball operations. And the buck does stop with you Artie. You’re worthless. Good luck to another 10 years of losing until Artie either sells or passes away and his kids hopefully sell to someone with some actual drive to win.
@ loaf
Im no angels fan… buuut trade trout and rebuild and in 5 years you will have as many titles as the dodgers, with less regret and maybe a chance!
Hopefully the A’s owner buys them after he makes a huge profit in Las Vegas and slashes payroll in Anaheim. Give you something to actually complain about
No Guts All Fluff Moreno doesn’t have what it takes to be a world class baseball team owner. Go Arte, go now, just go.
It was a done deal more than a year ago that he was going to be a Dodger, and everything else was just a smoke screen so people wouldn’t be yelling tampering
Since you have the crystal ball post your bet slips of you wagering and winning a fortune. You people that know all these things that are going to happen should bet the house.
He chose based on Dodgers success..hmmm..one World Series win over past 36 years. Amazing.
Prediction: This wont end well for either of them.
Gorton, it’s more subtle than that. Shohei said at the press conference that Dodger management themselves admitted the last decade has been a failure despite all those playoff appearances. He obviously liked the honesty and candor of their self assessment.
So he wanted to sign with a failure? Interesting.
Failure is not the same as Disaster. I can think of at least a dozen teams that qualify as Disasters.
And that list should start with the Yankees
How does it end for the Angels? I’d rather take my chances with the Dodgers. They just added Glasnow and have the inside track on Yamamoto. I’m too exhausted to hate the Dodgers at the moment.
Angels are foolish for not trading Trout, assuming he would accept a move.
They are going nowhere. Rendon is worthless and a money pit. At least clear the salary, tank, spend the money on Royals like deals in which you can flip at the deadline and start building a team instead of a wasteland.
From Arte’s business perspective, you don’t need to win the World Series, just be a top 10 spender and be somewhat competitive. That brings enough from different revenue streams to just keep the cycle going.
73 wins is competitive? Not fielding even one .500 team over the last eight-years is competitive? Moreno knows he had Ohtani and Trout to bring fans out to the park– now if just has Trout if he stays healthy? This is a mess.
A non story here. The Angels were probably just behind the Pirates in their ability to re-sign Ohtani.
As we’ve seen with the Giants supposedly offering Ohtani the same deal the Dodgers did, it wouldn’t have mattered if the Angels had met that offer. Short of a team offering him a great deal more (likely $100 million more), he was always going to be a Dodger.
Another guy he knew the future. You bet on that right. This past aug the dodgers were like +650 I believe. So you bet and made a fortune right?
Anyone else catch Ohtani’s last comment for the presser was saying he marveled the Big A was half full of Dodger fans when they came to town? Oh and the farm system. Asking how do they keep doing it. And how they say making the playoffs 10 yrs was a failure while that was the Angels goal the last several years. They never had a chance.
I caught it like a ‘John’ catches herpes from a street walker. The Dodgers told him that they felt they had failed since they had only one championship despite winning their division 10 out of the last 11-years. Ohtani lit up hearing that because he thinks the same way. There’s not enough penicillin in the city to clear up all I caught from that press conference that showed just how backward our organization is.
That’s the mindset of a winning team…not being satisfied with only making the playoffs. Moreno has no idea how to wrap his head around that way of thinking. He has no reason to as long as he is making money personally.
Good. Definitely not worth 460 or 700 or whatever he got. That contract is gonna look Pujols ugly in a few years. Arte finally got something right.
You don’t get it. This one player is not a player– he’s a walking, talking business conglomerate that makes the team an additional $50M a year because of his popularity in Asia. That’s $500M in revenue over the life of this contract that he generates outside of his value in America and on the diamond. If you listened to the Dodger president Kasdan explain, he said this move will make the Dodgers the most popular team in Asia and increase their revenues, while giving the Dodgers the edge in signing players out of Asia. They didn’t pay a DH/Pitcher $700M. And Ohtani could afford to defer his money because right now he makes $35M a year in endorsements, and that should increase now that he’s with the Dodgers– who plan to exploit him and his image around the globe. Ohtani set the record for the most Ohtani jerseys ordered in the first 48 hours– by far. This guy is a money machine and a global figure. Trout, Betts, Judge– none are global figures.
Carl slow your roll, Ohtani is a cash cow for sure. But u don’t know squat. You don’t think Mr. Marketing Arte doesn’t know Ohtani’s worth? He knows for sure, now that number grows more with a new team. Obviously, but not as much to the Angels, He milked his cash cow in his prime.
Now it’s time for a new team to do it for a few years. The dodgers will make some money in the next few years, but this contract has a better chance than not to back fire.
Who gets the money from the jersey sales?
Good for Dodge-ers. Angels did well not to sign him. The Angels should re-build and use the savings fromit improving scouting, development and minor league coaching. And conditioning.
Yes, and it should have begun a year and a half ago by trading Ohtani for a boatload of prospects. And then instead of trading their prospects at the deadline and they would have held onto them. Instead of putting half their team on waivers and giving away their players for free to save money, they could have traded them all for more prospects. The difference is about 20 more prospects overall. TWENTY!
I have so little respect for Ohtani, this whole thing stinks of someone trying to create the perfect scenario where they can appear humble and a good guy.
He defers money so he’s viewed as a guy who wants to win and who’ll sacrifice anything for a championship, but did he? No, he’s still getting all the money just later.
Is he going to be living off ramen and egg sandwiches like a college freshman? Nope, he will instead be making $2M per year and getting another $40M+ in endorsements.
It’s like this billionaires club where Oprah and Bill Gates promise to die with nothing. So they get all the love today for their philanthropic acts, while still being rich.
Ohtain’s like “I’m all about sacrificing for the team”, as he drives home in a Bentley, and then checks his account with 1/4 of a billion dollars at his mansion.
He didn’t share his dogs name, but just to make sure nobody hates him for that, he goes out of his way after the fact, only to learn his name with Dodger. Really?
This guy is so fake, he believes his own b.s. and I can see why he’s always lost every time he played for the Angels, he’ll need an army of All-Stars to overcome his enigmatic ways.
He drives a Tesla. His dog’s name is Dekopin. At least get your facts straight when ranting.
Sorry, but why does it matter if he drives a Tesla? So he’s a virtue signaler to the eco-warriors, what’s your point? Don’t forget he’s such a funny guy he names his dog after “a flick in the forehead” the translation for Dekopin. I didn’t look up what he drove like a stalker and another site said his dog’s name was Dodger. I guess they were joking about the dog’s name and I’ll try to be a better stalker in the future like you. But seriously who name’s their dog “a flick in the forehead”, which to that I would guess is his girlfriend’s idea since Dekopin is more of a girl thing to do in Japan. Just to be clear, Tesla or Bentley, it doesn’t matter, the concept is that he’s driving home in a nice expensive car while virtue signaling his fake willingness to sacrifice wealth for winning.
I’m not going to say he totally falls on his face, but I’d lay bets on him falling under the .900 OPS threshold next year. The year he played as a DH only due to TJ surgery, he finished with an .848 OPS. The following year he was a .657 OPS player for 1/3 of a season during the pandemic year. Since then, he’s posted a .965 OPS in 2021, .875 OPS in 2022, and a 1.066 OPS in a little over 80% of a season. We don’t know if his numbers drop off as fatigue sets in…. For what it’s worth his Sept. OPS is .856 (worst month career) and his Aug. OPS is .883 (3rd worst month career). The fact that he has a horrible whiff % (12th percentile in the league), not great chase % (40th percentile), and K% (35th percentile), all underline an overall impressive batted ball profile. The problem is he used to be an elite runner, he’s now average, once he reaches his early 30’s his bat speed will dip, he’ll lose a couple more hits each year from slower foot speed, and his strikeout issues will become exasperated.
I was on the fence at $40-45M/season, but not at a deferred $45M… The Dodgers can have him, and mark my words, Betts, Freeman, Ohtani, Smith, and Muncy are all due for a noticeable dip in production as soon as 2024. Smith being one of the youngest is more due to position. Ohtani has a violent swing that will have to be adjusted due to the surgery a few months ago, which will take time to heal from correctly. Munch and Freeman are just getting older, while Betts is a smaller guy, which tends to not age as well through the 30s. Say what you want, but age, position, health, and size are the biggest indicators of regression, and all of the Dodgers key players have reasons to doubt they can maintain their performance.
A lot of pickup trucks cost more than Teslas. As far as virtue signaling, I think you are reading more into it than is warranted. My kid wants one and he is the farthest thing from a virtue signaler than one of his rap music idols.
The name of his dog must be a cultural thing. He is a Japanese national after all and they do have a different sense of logic than Americans in many aspects of life. I have a dog that guards our livestock and the house and his name is not for public consumption because I do not want strangers to know it. We are blessed that he shared his dog’s name.
Also, I don’t stalk but I have been following his career since Day 1 via news reporting. It was disappointing when he chose the Angels but I still followed him because I am a 3rd generation Japanese American and what he was attempting to do just blew me away.
And thank you for all the hard facts and stats about his Angel days. I will keep them in mind as he compiles numbers for his new team.
Thank_God_We_Arent_Angels – That’s a lot of words. By all accounts, Ohtani is a good man. Sometimes people who are private are misperceived as something else. That’s the result of living in a “hey check me out” social media society where nothing is private and no one is humble.
Ohtani makes a lot of money for a God given skill. There’s nothing wrong with driving a nice car and living in a nice house or being rich.
You miss the point, I grew up in Japan. I know the culture better than most. He is trying hard to make everyone think he’s a good guy and by all accounts he probably seems like it in person. I used to have a friend like him when I was younger, he always did the right thing and was nice to everyone, but only through knowing him did you understand it was all about needing everyone to like him. He couldn’t take criticism, was ill-tempered when things didn’t go his way, and never took responsibility for his failures. I don’t know the details of Ohtani’s personality like I did my friend, but my friend was super talented and I get that nice-guy-so-everyone-likes-me vibe from him. It just seems fake and he feels very sisengenupus to me.
My friend just missed America’s Got Talent as a singer, twice had Guiness Book of World Records come out to see him set the limbo world record, was a pro bowler at 15 years old. Owned his own Bowling Pro Shop at 21 years old (no loans). He was so succesful he bough a townshouse and a BMW in cash and owned his Pro Shop outright. He was an impressive guy, but that didn’t change the fact that he was always out for complete approval. Say it’s me reading into a lot of things, but if you think this all doesn’t come off like a fake ploy to appear humble, well, I don’t know what to tell you. He says the right thing almost too much. He clearly wanted to stay in L.A. and he had no intention of going back to the Angels. Yet, his agent calls and says do you want to give him one last pitch to stay an Angel to Arte Moreno and his staff. Not, do you want to match the offer, but do you want to beg my client to come back and promise him the world?! I mean if you can’t win with prime Trout, I don’t think the Dodgers will fair better.
Thank_God_We_Arent_Angels – So the only evidence you proffer to support your speculation that Ohtani is a fraud is a friend you had who behaved poorly. Thanks. I will stick with my comment.
Your perspective is pretty twisted. Ohtani stayed in Los Angeles to go with the best run organization– the Dodgers. Deferring money is real– he’s doing it. No one defers 98%– no one. EVER! How can you knock that? There’s nothing fake about his dedication, results or commitment to the game or his team. All he does is eat, sleep, workout and play baseball– that’s it. What’s not to admire? You and I should be so dedicated to something instead of posting here– think about it. He had every reason to complain about the Angels while he played and after he left, but he didn’t. He took the high road. The only bad guy here is Moreno, who should have traded him two seasons ago. The only reason to watch the Angels the last two years has been Ohtani– and to a lesser degree Trout. We are now officially off the grid of the MLB network with Ohtani’s departure.
I stand by my comments and clearly you are an unbiased Dodgers fan who would be exactly the guy to cry foul, if this was the Giants pulling this crap and you guys weren’t coming off a series of 100 win seasons. I’m not even a Giants fan or even a fan of a NL team, so aside from the three games my Mariners will play against the Dodgers each season, you guys won’t even effect our ability to win a World Series, since you rarely get out of the wild card division.
Ohtani found the only team that can guarantee he makes the postseason every year and never win a series outside of the Twins. At this rate, he’ll work his way up to a World Series contender like Houston around the time he turns 50!! Good luck trying to get tickets in your own city to see your own team live, ticket prices should be even more affordable going forward!
Moreno wants to eventually sell. It’s hard to sell the team while telling the potential new owners that Ohtani will be paid $68 million per year from 2034 – 2043. Regardless of $46 million being put into escrow for the first 10 years.
This is precisely what happened.
Can’t sell the team with $680M in future liabilities.
Sure. The Angels are much more attractive now without Ohtani. If they can just get rid of Trout they’ll really attract buyers.
The team is probably more attractive without Trout, why would new ownership want their first big move to be moving a franchise icon out of the city he was drafted in? They wouldn’t.
He should just get on with it and sell now.
It has to be depressing to be a Halo or Giants fan. Both teams are constantly second fiddle to the dodgers.
What doesn’t make sense is the Angels not trading Ohtani if they weren’t gonna be all in. it shows the lack of long term strategy from Arte and the stupidity of everything he does.
Very disappointing. Time for him to leave
We all knew he wants gonna come back so why not just trade him for something. To the dodgers biggest enemy out of spite.
Kiss my “Mickey Mouse” ring you salty chumps. Going for 8th World Series Championship with Shohei next year!!
Sure
2-to-1 you guys only get a wild card. 10-to-1 you guys miss the playoffs, and even money on the Dodgers being the center of vitriol for the whole season!
I wish I had the strength to argue. The Dodgers are like Kryptonite.
Fully agree, even with the Angels being somewhat spenders. Pay it forward, and all monies should be in play.
Bobby Bonnia, don’t look at his stupid 1m, that’s so miniscule than what we have here.
I get it, it’s a loop hole they manipulated, it all fair game till they fix it. But in the future, it all should count (70m).
I know Ohtani is making stupid money anyways, but you’re kinda right there in what your what your saying,in taking advantage, it make for rule changes.
Arte finally did the right thing. Shohei the pitcher has his limits and his true value, to baseball and fans, is his elite two way play. The Angels got the most value for the $40m over 6 years they had him. He’s fast, but had never been great on the basepaths, he’s a DH, a spot that needs to go to Trout, Rendon, and any other position player that needs a break, and he forces a team into a six man rotation, which disrupts the routine of almost every starting rotation in the league. I believe that’s why the young Angel starters have been so inconsistent the past few years. I love Ohtani, but this will be good for the Angels
Did the right thing? Sober up. We knew he was leaving two-years ago. Why wasn’t he traded? We got nothing back and he wound up with the Dodgers. It’s impossible to have handled this any worse.
First, good for the Angels. That contract will be a total albatross.
Second, there are many many other players besides Ohtani. This is getting absurd.
One of the few times I agree with Arte.
The Angels must have a 2 albatross contract maximum
Arte should have just sold the team to Ohtani and his entourage. Then Ohtani would find out what a bad decision it is to pay ONE PLAYER $700 million — especially a pitcher coming off his second Tommy John surgery.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Ohtani could convert his deferred money into owner’s shares once he retires. You can’t do that as a player, but whose to say how he gets paid. Sure there’s some tax Dodger in that too, but at $680M, that’s probably worth 510% of the team by then.
I dont believe any story where anybody was close to what the Dodgers gave up. Dodgers just overpaid and than got spooked by the Toronto and overpaid more….
Not true. Toronto and SF were both willing to pay the same dollars. They’ve both acknowledged this fact.
Well, the Dodgers just covered 10 years of his salary in jersey sales from the first 48-hours! I’d be surprised if they didnt make $50 profit after fees and league sharing per jersey. Figure they probably sold a million already. So that’s $50M in 48 hours?! That’s twice what the Mariners will spend this offseason.
The dodgers don’t make that much off jersey sales it shows you don’t know what you’re talking about. Each jersey that is sold profits are divided among all 30 teams that’s after the player gets a cut. So I doubt the dodgers made 700 million off of jersey sales that’s absurd thing to say.
Divided among all 30 teams is not the same thing as divided equally among all 30 teams.
I love when guys like you who didn’t graduate high school and still work at the local ice cream stand, start telling everyone else about how much they don’t know. Maybe next time don’t rage quit pre-algebra when you’re 14 if you want to be such a know-it-all and waive around your intellectual superiority!
I said $50M total, not $700M, try reading before you comment. Also, nobody has the exact numbers, but teams wouldn’t sell jerseys in their teamstore for an equal part of the money and no high revenue team would be willing to evenly split all jersey sales with a team like the Athletics who add nothing to the equation.
The joke being made was covering his $20M over the next 10 years ($2M/year), because of the deferral. As everyone knows! It’s obvious the Dodgers didn’t make $700M in jersey sales. You need to pour yourself a drink and relax, It’s also stupid calling someone a liar when you lack the details to make that accusation.
Nobody is reading that novel of misinformation. You have no idea what you’re talking about. Just shut up because you’re wrong about everything. Trying to tell me who works with and has worked for people in the industry how jersey sales work. God damn buffoon.
But, there’s more. The MLB splits the license deal equally amongst all 30 teams. Regardless of which team sold the most merchandise, jerseys, hats, or memorabilia, the entire $600 million sum is divided equally amongst 30 teams.
ballarelife.com/do-mlb-players-get-paid-for-jersey…
Remember who your daddy is before you mouth off someone much smarter than you whose forgot more about baseball than you ever dream of knowing.
Cat got your tongue?
The biggest waste was they had Ohtani and they were still too cheap to even send a radio announcing team on the road. The pre and post games are a joke compared to Dodgers and Sports Nets. They Dodgers have a dozen announcers and analysts, an hour pre and post game shows. Radio too. and the Angels have Bobby frickin Valentine.
skip – Valentine! That guy creeps me out with his silver hair and fake tan.
I see a lot people coping hard that their team didn’t get Ohtani.
Yes n no, not with most of us Angels fans, we all love to have him of coarse. But at that price? the risk is worse than the reward. We already fumbled on enough of his prime. But anyway, good luck with those fews years left in prime.
That’s a bass ackwards way of bragging the Dodgers got him. Not every player has infinite appeal. I would’ve been in up to $400M/10 years, but that would’ve been my max, even considering extra profits from ticket sales, etc. Anything more than that defeats the benefit of the added roster space. Realistically, what’s the 26th man worth on an MLB team? -X.XX WAR?! so what would a 27th guy be worth? That’s the reason I see a two-way player as more of a liabilty than a strength. Sure you stil get his bat, but last time he had elbow surgery he posted a mid .800s OPS (.865?).
The point being, that’s not worth $35M let alone double that. You say he adds extra revenue? To which team?! The Athletics? Yeah, I bet he sells 2 million tickets in Oakland, but in L.A.? They just sold lile 3.69M tickets in 2023. How many more seats can he fill by his signing? You bring up jersey sales, but all teams benefit from merchandise sales, maybe the Dodgers a little more, but $700M worth?! I doubt it. Endorsements? He already gets them and that’s a player benefit more than a team or city benefit. TV revenue and commercials? If you can’t get max money from a perennial playoff team sniffing 100 wins each year, I don’t know what Ohtani will do for you. I think that the better the team and the more developed their revenue streams, the less Ohtani adds financial value.
The team that should’ve signed him with hopes of moving the needle significantly would be Seattle, San Francisco, and Cincinnati. The problem with Cincinnati is how far esst they are. However, the Mariners and Giants could max attendance at 3.2M-ish and were at least 500K below that in 2023, same with the Giants, while the Reds were probably 1 million below capacity in 2023. That means Ohtani in those markets probably adds $15-25M in ticket sales each season besides the other revenue streams he would add. A team like the Dodgers or Yankees probably would be the worst place to invest in a player like Ohtani because you don’t get the full value when you are already such a successful organization.
“but he chose the Dodgers and their unparalleled track record of recent success.” Say what ?
They have won one WS title in the last 35 years and that one was not a regular season.
Why do fans think success is only measured by WS titles? By that logic only 6 teams should try to win every year and the rest should just rank. Absurd take. The dodgers are perennial contenders every year. It be similar to saying the braves weren’t successful in the 90s. Just be quiet and quite dumb opinions
You said it, now you know why everyone is tired of a system that favors the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Phillies, Cubs, Giants, Red Sox, Braves, Astros, and Rangers. Those are the 10 teams that control their own fate due to market, more than all the other teams. Most of the two team cities has a twam that suffers by proximity. It’s a reason I’m glad to see the Athletics move to Las Vegas! I think the White Sox and Angels deal with the same thing to a lesser degree.
Really wish they would expand the game to Nashville, and Portland or Salt Lake City (somewhere out west). This would allow us to realign the league into 4 divisions per league (AL & NL) for 8 total divisions. You make two super divisions in each league that allows them to beat up on each other and make it more fair for smaller market teams when they stick their necks out and try to open a window of contention.
Honestly it’s probably the best thing Art could have done. He had 2 of the best players in all of baseball for 6 years and couldn’t build a winner around them. Sad. It would have been a waste of a ton of money to see Ohtani and Trout rot in Anaheim. Sucks for Trout, he’s stuck there.
Once again Arte blew it. Ohtani’s contract basically pays the Angels/Dodgers to win, by deferring practically off of his salary. A salary that will pay for itself in 5 years. An international player like Ohtani would have the stadium fulls, the marketing alone has to be worth 50 mil a year, plus all the talent that would be attracted to play in Anaheim. The problem is Arte, as always. Just sell the team, you chicken hearted corporate shill.
The Angels do what they do, a whole lot of nothing. Fans are told they’re not rebuilding yet they aren’t going after any pieces that would make them win. Nothing to replace Shohei let alone anything else. Moreno is the problem and it’s disappointing he didn’t sell.
The Angels will never succeed with Moreno at the top. He was one of the 3 owners who held out the players strike for so long, because he didn’t want to pay minor leaguers. He’s money man who doesn’t have what it takes to be a baseball man.
angelscamp2 hours ago
Once again Arte blew it.
============================
your logic is faulty.
1-If the Angels were a 73-win team with Ohtani, what makes they would win if they added Ohtani. It would still be the same team.
2-If they had as much as 3.4M in attendance before Ohtani, and they are down to 2.6M with Ohtani, why would you think that adding Ohtani will turn that around.
The Ohtani thing just wasn’t working with the Angels.
He never tried. Kept getting those single big splashes but never backed them up. The team has needed pitching for some time and he prefers the short term/ rental market as opposed to a long term signing.
Artie Moreno also didn’t have dead Kobe making a pitch for the Dodgers from beyond the grave.
Of Ohtani’s six years with the Angels, he gave us two solid seasons of pitching and hitting. The Angels would be a totally different team today had they traded him two years ago and built a solid team around Trout. All the disdain for having traded Ohtani would be buried under having built a winning team. That’s my take.
News flash:
Reds didn’t match the Dodgers offer.
Pirates didn’t match the Dodgers offer.
Royals didn’t match the Dodgers offer.
etc.
Is this the latest Ohtani news scheme?
I can’t help feeling his “Samurai” soul for this contract because if he ends up being like Chris Davis or Strassberg he’ll probably take responsibility for himself and do “harakiri” to renounce his salary that’s to be paid after 10 years. All he has to do is ask Andrew to step down only to step back up after Ohtani opts out to give up the money. Now that’s the way of a true Samurai soldier.
That’s actually Suppuku where they stab themselves in the stomach and cut open their abdomen causing their intestines to pour out.
Unless you mean Harry Caray?! But that’s where you kill yourself by over drinking and having a heart attack while dancing,.
You’re right. Hara is stomach Kiri is to cut, same meaning as Seppuku.
Now if the Dodgers fire Roberts and hire Joe Maddon, that would be a real burn. Shohei loves Joe.
And there were people on here getting mad at me when I said they should trade him. They didn’t even match.
Longtime Angels Fan here. The Angels aren’t remotely in a spot to compete for the next couple of years, so signing Ohtani to me doesn’t make sense purely from a competitive standpoint.. Yes, he’s a generational talent, but this team would continue to sit in idle with more of the same if he were to sign with the Angels (75-81 win seasons and miss the playoffs).. Ohtani also made it quite clear that he wanted to play for a team that was highly likely to compete into the future. I don’t think the Angels had any real shot to sign Ohtani, so this is a way that the Angels can save face and say that they didn’t offer him a contract.
This team just needs to be blown up to be quite honest. They should plan to compete in approximately 5 seasons and figure out what they need to get in order to be in that spot. Arte unfortunately cannot help himself, so this team won’t be going anywhere until Arte is out of the picture.
To understand why the Angels couldn’t match, one has to understand the ownership structure of the Angels. It’s a partnership of several 70+ and 75+ oldsters with Arte (77) at the helm.
The competition:
Dodgers – Guggenheim consortium led by Mark Walter (63) Net worth $6B
Giants – Johnson family, run by Greg Johnson (61) – Net worth $6.1B
Jays – Rogers Communications, telecom giant. Rogers family net worth $5B
Bottom line – There is no possible way that Arte and the rest of Angels ownership could make a 20yr commitment to Shohei. They have zero intention of owning the team that long, and that contract structure would have made a significant dent in the value they would receive at sale.
I hope Arte gets booed wherever he goes until he sells the Angels. Stupid tourist has no business owning a sports team.
Angelscamp – I know the past 9 years have been difficult, but as an Angel fan since 1977, I also know that Arte’s 21 years of ownership hasn’t been all bad. For example:
Angels win % 1961-2002: .486
Angels win % 2003-2023: .520
Angels playoff appearances 1961-2002: 4 (once every 10.5yrs)
Angels playoff appearances 2003-2023: 6 (once every 3.5yrs)
Angels avg annual attendance 1966-2002: 1,851,475
Angels avg annual attendance 2003-2023: 3,103,951 (excludes ’20&’21)
Average payroll rank 2003-2023: 6.5
Franchise value 2002: $185 Million
Franchise value 2023: $3 Billion
Does Bill Stoneman have any children the Angels could hire??