The dust has not completely settled on the wonderful world of baseball after Shohei Ohtani officially signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a whopping $700 million, only $20 million of which will be paid out over the next ten years.
Moreover, this idea of deferring as much money as possible after the ten years of the contract, 680 million dollars in the end, comes from the main party himself.
The Japanese even wanted to play for free for ten seasons and postpone the $700 million in the future. Yes yes!
His agent, Nez Balelo, however, told him that this was impossible and that a minimum had to be included in the contract, namely two million dollars per year.
This is in fact what emerges from an interview that the Nippon agent granted to Tom Verducci and that the latter reported on the show by Rich Eisen.
According to Balelo, his client wanted the deal structured this way to give his team a better chance of winning by allowing them to spend more money on others.
Nobody does that. But there's no one like Ohtani.
Max Scherzer's 50% carryover with the Washington Nationals was the previous record, meaning Ohtani now holds the record for the largest amount of carryover money, as well as the largest percentage as well.
Verducci also reports that the Japanese has a clause in his contract that ensures the club will keep its promise to use the savings he has created to build a competitive team around him.
So it looks like Ohtani had a great idea for his new lineup and he should be praised for that instead of spitting on both parties.
Baseball is not sick, far from it.
