Swanson: Shohei Ohtani says Southern California is home
Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to live and work in Southern California?
And Canada? Oh, no.
Not for the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard, the NBA star who really might have had all his dinners paid for in perpetuity by our neighbors to the north, and not for new Dodger Shohei Ohtani either.
The greatest baseball player of all time, Ohtani made it Instagram official Saturday: It’s Shotime in L.A., baby. He’s about to be an Angeleno.
The now-former Angel announced on that social media app at midday Saturday that he’ll be staying put, whether because of our sunshine or our tacos or the appeal of joining Southern California’s other team – the one that always makes the postseason and not the one constantly left outside looking in.
Ohtani will be a Dodger, at last. You can exhale now, Dave Roberts. Your club got its man.
For the next decade, the all-time performer will take up residency at Chavez Ravine. The Dodgers are getting the player who can do the most to help lift them over this stubborn postseason hump, just one championship in 11 consecutive trips to the playoffs, and see them lifting a World Series trophy again.
The 29-year-old sensation from Oshu, Japan, agreed to a reported 10-year deal worth $700 million – the largest contract for any individual in North American sports history.
It far exceeds the $360 million record for free agents set last winter by New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge as well as the record-setting $426.5 million extension by Ohtani’s former Angels teammate Mike Trout. The Ohtani deal surpasses even Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi’s $674 million contract that he signed in 2021 with FC Barcelona.
Ohtani is worth it. An unprecedented contract for an unprecedented athlete.
He’s a unicorn – maybe the unicorn. A multi-dimensional everyday star and a big ticket-seller. That’s why, after six big-league seasons – which included an American League Rookie of the Year award, two America League MVP awards and zero playoff appearances – Ohtani was the most sought-after major-league free agent of all time.
He was wooed widely, by fans and organizations alike – including by those reported short-listers: the Angels, the San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, Toronto Blue Jays and, yes, the Dodgers.
He was quite obviously the Dodgers’ “top priority,” as Roberts dared mention aloud during a media session at the Winter Meetings this past week.
Apparently, that glimmer of transparency didn’t scare away the famously private Ohtani, who’s been on the Dodgers’ radar as far back as high school. They’d still been keen on him six years ago, when, after five seasons playing pro ball in Japan, Ohtani made the move to MLB – surprisingly spurning the Dodgers for the Angels, for whom he could be a two-way player, a previously unthinkable, seemingly impossible feat.
He excelled in that dual role, of course. Crushed it. Recalibrated our collective comprehension of what’s possible. And now that the National League has the DH, he’ll be able to do it all in blue.
How’s this for a killer lineup? Ohtani batting in an order that also features Mookie Betts, who slugged a career-best 39 home runs a year ago and finished second in NL MVP voting, and Freddie Freeman, the third-place MVP finisher this past season and one of the game’s most reliable players. Together, those three hit a combined 144 home runs and stole 57 bases last season.
But, pitching. The Dodgers definitely need more of that too in the near future if they’re going to make sufficient postseason noise, and Ohtani’s recent elbow surgery means he won’t be on the mound again until at least 2025.
So there’s work for the club to do still, but Ohtani’s contract appears to contains significant deferrals, which will give the club some necessary flexibility to add other key pieces and reduce the competitive tax balance penalty. But the Dodgers have extra pressure on them to unlock the right combination to make their investment in Ohtani work – something the Angels never were able to do.
His legacy in Anaheim is historic: Beyond the two unanimous MVPs, he had a three-year stretch in which he hit 124 homers while also striking out 542 batters. Wild to write that still.
And yet the Angels went 73-89 the past two seasons after going 77-85 in 2021. They played no meaningful September baseball during Ohtani’s tenure. And losing him will hurt.
A new era is at hand for Angels GM Perry Minasian, who has said he’ll be aggressive this offseason as the club considers how to fill the massive void and work around Trout, himself a three-time MVP, who has had three consecutive seasons with substantial IL stints.
Minasian won’t, of course, be as aggressive as teams were in their pursuit of Ohtani, who took his time weighing his options and apologized for it on Instagram – not that the Dodgers or their fans minded in the end.
After expressing his gratitude to the Angels and their supporters, Ohtani had a message for his new club’s loyalists: “I pledge,” he wrote, “to always do what’s best for the team and always continue to give it my all to be the best version of myself. Until the last day of my playing career, I want to continue to strive forward not only for the Dodgers but for the baseball world.”
And then he promised to say more at a later press conference. But, best of all for baseball fans in Southern California, is what he’ll have to say on the field here for years to come.