by SEBASTIAN POLONIS
Last December, the baseball world witnessed the largest contract in the history of not only baseball, but of all sports. With an unprecedented $700-million contract, Shohei Ohtani signed with the LA Dodgers, marking one of the biggest moves in MLB history.
His debut immediately showed his worth, as Ohtani crushed a home run in just his third at-bat in a Dodgers uniform. The ball, which sailed 377 feet over left field, marks the potential of the Dodgers this season. With a near-.500 batting average through his first few exhibition games, Ohtani’s been off to a crazy-good start.
He’s still the threat he was last year, the famous two-way pitcher and hitter. He’s one of few people in MLB history to pitch and hit at highly elite levels in both fields.
The one issue in Ohtani’s game is staying healthy. With use both on the mound and at the plate, he’s more susceptible to injuries. He had ankle surgery in 2017, Tommy John surgery on his pitching arm in 2018 and recently had elbow surgery on the same arm, which will prevent him from pitching this season. Expect his batting skills, which are already top-tier, to sharpen further without pitching fatigue.
With Ohtani’s signing, the Dodgers have made it clear that they are pushing to become the next big super team. Along with signing Ohtani, the Dodgers made several other splashes in free agency, trading for and signing Tyler Glasnow to a $136.5-million contract extension for five years. Additionally, they signed Japanese superstar pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a 12-year, $325-million contract, the largest contract ever signed by a pitcher.
Yamamoto has never played an inning in Major League Baseball, but has proven his skills in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league, where his ERA was an astounding 1.82 over the past seven years. Yamamoto and Ohtani are two examples of Japan’s new rise of superstars coming to the MLB. The magnitude of Ohtani’s fame is difficult to comprehend, but to put it simply: he is one of the biggest athletes to ever come out of Japan.
With audiences worldwide connecting American sports via streaming services and digital sites, a player such as Ohtani can build a huge global brand. Just 24 hours after signing with the team, the Dodgers reported an 8,250% increase in merchandise sales in Japan. Additionally, Ohtani’s jersey sales broke Fanatics’s record for the most jerseys sold in 48 hours, snapping a record Lionel Messi previously set in his transfer to Inter Miami. His inaugural press conference amassed 70 million viewers, making it more watched than every game of the 2023 World Series combined.
Chadwick senior and longtime Dodgers fan AJ Velasco has high
hopes for his team this year. The
Dodgers haven’t won the World Series since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and their recent playoff failures are part of the reason why they signed Ohtani. “His over-all talent as a player will be something that can hopefully break the Dodgers curse of losing in the playoffs,” said Velasco. “I’m excited for it. So far in one game, he’s already shown off what he can do.”
For Ohtani, this new stage of his career could add the one thing missing from his resume: a ring. In six seasons with the Angels, he never played in a playoff game, and the Angels never had a winning record. The Dodgers, while shaky in the playoffs, are known winners, and this move could be the last piece needed for a dynasty.
The Dodgers season will start in Seoul next Wednesday and Thursday (live on ESPN at 3 a.m.!). For Ohtani, his spring training has been going smoothly, and his talent has been on full display for the past few weeks.
Another one of Ohtani’s marvels is his personality and work ethic, both of which are key to his talent but also his fame. “There’s just a great sense of humility and kindness,” Dave Robert, manager of the Dodgers, said of Ohtani. “But there’s that lion in there. You see it. And that, for me—that’s the perfect combo.”
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