It took a decade (and a crazy week).... but Shohei Ohtani is FINALLY a Dodger
The greatest to ever do it is now a Dodger
What were you doing when you got the notification a little past noon?
I was sitting at my desk in my apartment talking with my girlfriend. We had each just wrapped up our daily session of Wordle, Connections and the Immaculate Grid. By the way, I killed it yesterday, getting a rarity score of 30.
As she texted me a screenshot of her daily grid picks, the notifications started filling my phone. Despite having notifications turned on for every major baseball reporter out there, the notification that popped up right as I looked at my phone came from NBA insider Shams Charania.
Right, go figure.
I didn’t catch the entire tweet in the notifcation. All it said was “Breaking MLB free agency news: Shohei Ohtani is signing”
The rest was cut off. I didn’t even have a chance to catch my breath. I didn’t take a second to brace for the impact of him not signing with the Dodgers. I just clicked the notification faster than I’ve ever clicked anything in my life.
“Breaking MLB free agency news: Shohei Ohtani is signing with the LA Dodgers.”
WHAT??????
WE GOT SHOHEI?????
Those are the words I calmly said to my girlfriend as I thought this was a joke of some sort. Wasn’t he supposed to go to the Blue Jays? At least, that’s what I thought. I was told it wasn’t a drill.
I then checked my other notifications rapidly. There it was, the one from Jeff Passan saying “Shohei Ohtani just posted on Instagram that he’s signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers.”
I rushed to Instagram to see the post for itself. I opened the app, and what was the first post I saw? The now famous low resolution Dodgers logo.
I’ve followed Shoehi Ohtani on Instagram for a while. Never in a million years would I have expected to see the Dodgers logo being posted from his account. I honestly didn’t even read the post at first. I took a screenshot and tweeted that he was a Dodger. I think I tweeted a few other things before finally reading the post.
What can I say, I was excited.
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The saga that we all experienced over the last few weeks is something I’ll truly never forget. This is something that one day we’ll tell our kids and grandkids about.
Let’s start during the winter meetings. Remember when Dave Roberts spoke with reporters? Remember when he told the entire world that the Dodgers had a meeting with Shohei Ohtani at Dodger Stadium?
What a time that was.
Everyone thought that was a death wish. Ohtani’s camp reportedly didn’t want teams leaking meetings. Was it really a leak if it came from the mouth of the MANAGER of the club? The club that has been favored to sign the superstar for over a year? Everyone thought so.
Dave Roberts instantly became public enemy number one. He just ruined the Dodgers’ chances at Ohtani. How could he be so dumb?
Twitter was a field day, let me tell you that. Everyone was tearing Dave apart for his decision to publicly say the Dodgers met with Ohtani. If the free agent didn’t choose the Dodgers, Roberts would be the reason. Dodgers fans would somehow find a new way to “Blame Dave!”
I personally wasn’t worried. If Ohtani would have passed on the Dodgers for that reason, well…. that would be an issue in itself.
The days went on and nothing happened. The winter meetings came and went and Ohtani was still a free agent. When was he going to sign? Nobody knew.
We got “reports” saying it could come after the winter meetings. Then by the end of the weekend. Then they were saying as early as next week. Nobody truly knew when to expect a decision. This free agency was the biggest secrecy in MLB history.
Friday was when things took a turn. Delivering one of the craziest days in social media history.
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I’m not one to wake up early, but for some reason I woke up a few minutes after this tweet at 5:39 a.m. A decision from Ohtani was imminent?! How am I supposed to go back to sleep now?!
I stayed awake, waiting for the Ohtani notification to hit that he had signed with a team. Minutes went by, and eventually hours. There was nothing.
Fast forward a couple of hours. At 10:53 a.m., this dropped.
“Shohei Ohtani’s choice is in. This is not a drill.”
WHAT!?
I quickly clicked on the article, gasping when it said he had chosen the Toronto Blue Jays.
What!?
After being the favorites for over a year, did the Dodgers just seriously get beat out by the Toronto Blue Jays? There’s no way…. that can’t be.
Twitter quickly became a frenzy as the article spread like wildfire. Everyone was talking about it. It didn’t take long for the report to make its way up the higher ranks. After about 10 minutes, a lot of the top beat reporters came out and tweeted that the report was FALSE and Ohtani did NOT have a decision yet.
What is happening!! We still have a chance?
Oh, that’s just the beginning…..
There were rumors circulating on Twitter that a private jet was departing Orange County and heading to Toronto. Who could that possibly be? Well, people connected that dots and assumed it was Ohtani. All of a sudden, that plane became one of the most tracked planes in history.
Everyone thought Ohtani was on that plane headed to Toronto, especially after this report at 1:01 p.m.
For the next hour, everyone believed Ohtani was heading to Toronto. Why would Morosi tweet that if it wasn’t true? I mean, who else would be leaving on a private jet from Orange County and head to Toronto?
Fast forward an hour…. as Bob Nightengale came down from the TOP ROPE!
Wait, so he’s NOT on that plane?! He’s not going to Toronto?! Seriously, what the hell is going on?!?!?!
Absolute anarchy. Chaos.
Oh, it doesn’t stop there…..
There was in fact a plane that flew out of Orange County. There was a private jet that landed in Toronto. There was a famous person on that plane that everyone knew. Only, it wasn’t Shohei Ohtani.
In a script right out of Hollywood, it was discovered that ‘Shark Tank’ star Robert Herjavec was on that plane. Yes…. THAT guy!
Okay seriously, this saga has gotten too good. This is actually out of a movie, right?
What a day. What a freaking day.
Signing with the Blue Jays. Heading to Toronto. Not on the plane. Robert Herjavec?!
Truly a day that none of us will ever forget. Oh, that all happened on Friday! What would Saturday bring?
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It was a quiet Saturday morning. No Shohei news at all. The events from Friday had come and gone. We were still playing the waiting game.
BOOM
The news breaks. The biggest free agency news in baseball history dropped. Shohei Ohtani had made his decision. He had chosen the Dodgers.
As you can expect, the next 20-30 minutes were just crazy. Texts and messages coming and going. Everyone was losing their minds. The Dodgers got Shohei Ohtani!
Once the dust settled, we all saw the notification that made us go “Holy S***!”
10 years. $700 million.
Was that a misprint? Did somebody get that wrong? No way I read that right. Seven hundred MILLION dollars????
All offseason people were talking about him potentially getting $600 million, which seemed absolutely insane to even think about. No way would he get that much, especially since he won’t be pitching next year.
It was all true. The Dodgers offered Shohei $700 million, making it the largest contract in North American sports history.
Wow.
The price is insane….. and the Dodgers are genius for it.
According to multiple reports, majority of that $700 million will be deferred. As of right now, we don’t know how that contract structure is going to look. Apparently it was Shohei’s idea. HE was the one who proposed it so the Dodgers could afford to surround him with more talent.
Instead of paying him $70M a season, the number will be a lot less. This is significant because it allows the Dodgers to go out and surround him with better talent. Even if they save only $20 million a year, that is still a massive number that can go towards another star (Yamamoto?) or a couple of other pieces.
The Dodgers added arguably the best hitter in all of baseball and now they have a chance to add even more. I’m sure in the coming days and weeks we’ll see a number of other moves as well.
I still can’t believe Shohei Ohtani is a Dodger. The Dodgers wanted him coming out of high school and they missed. They wanted him when he came over here six years ago and they missed. Can you imagine if they went 0-for-3 and struck out swinging? That would have been painful.
When the Dodgers made some questionable moves last offseason, everyone knew they had a bigger plan. They had the 2023 offseason in mind. They made sure to have as much salary available so they could go after Ohtani.
It was a make-or-break offseason for the Dodgers. If they somehow didn’t land Ohtani, it would be one of the biggest failures in baseball history. Everyone on the planet was expecting him to be a Dodger, just imagine if they would have whiffed.
I’m not sure what the other offers were, but I’m fairly confident no other team was close to offering $700 million. The Dodgers wanted their guy and they wanted him badly. They knew what it would take to get them to the finish line. They went for it. It worked.
Shohei Ohtani is a generational player. By the time he retires, he could be considered the greatest player in the history of baseball. Think about that for just a second. The greatest to EVER play this game…. and he’s now a Dodger. He’s a Dodger for the next decade.
For the next 10 seasons, we’re going to have the privilege to watch the best in the world suit up for the Dodgers. What we’re going to witness is something we’ll get to tell our kids and grandkids about. They’ll ask us questions about what it was like to watch the greatest to ever do it…. play for us.
It’s been a fun 24 hours. The celebrating hasn’t ended yet, and I’m sure it won’t for quite some time.
Enjoy it Dodgers fans, because the Shohei Ohtani experience has just begun.
I saved this email in my family file. YES!
I'm willing to bet that the Dodgers $700 Million investment pays off for them over the next 10 years. Let's take the World Series and rings off the table for a moment - call those icing on a very nice cake. If the Angels can make and estimate $30 million from Shohei and the "experts" believe the Dodgers who are a more widely known, international brand can double that, that's $50-$60 Million a year, at 10 years. You do the math. Then there's the additional revenue from home game attendance - which because the Dodgers draw so well may not be a significant amount - AND their 81 road games each season. Plus the new sponsors who will be (more) interested in getting their brands in front of the now expanded Asian markets.
This is a huge win for the Dodgers - a very shrewd and wise investment. And it's a big win for baseball because, at least Ohtani will be in the post season a few times in the next 6 years - unlike the past 6 years.
It's just business