It’s officially official. Shohei Ohtani is now a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The MLB team made the announcement Monday evening with quotes from Ohtani as well as Dodgers owner Mark Walter.
“Dodger fans, thank you for welcoming me to your team,” Shohei Ohtani said in a statement. “I can say 100 percent that you, the Dodgers organization and I share the same goals — to bring World Series parades to the streets of Los Angeles.”
Ohtani’s contract is worth a reported $700 million over 10 years. It is, by far, the largest contract in the history of Major League Baseball.
Interestingly enough, a report broke earlier on Monday indicating that Ohtani plans on deferring $680 million of the contract until 2034. He will be paid $68 million each year from 2034-2043. “The previously unreported deferrals were said to be suggested by Ohtani himself,” Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic noted.
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For Ohtani, the idea is to help the Dodgers add more players to the mix as they vie for a World Series in 2024 and beyond. Los Angeles is still being linked to some of the top players available on the MLB free agent market, including Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
“On behalf of the L.A. Dodgers and our fans everywhere, we welcome Shohei Ohtani to the Dodgers, the home of Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax and Hideo Nomo, three of the sport’s most legendary and pathbreaking players,” Dodgers owner Mark Walker said in a statement. “We congratulate him on his historic contract with our storied franchise.”
This really is a earth-shattering moment for the Dodgers and MLB as a whole. The record deferral also promises to raise some major eyebrows around the sport. That’s especially true if the structure enables Los Angeles to add other big-name and high-priced players to the mix.
As for Ohtani’s former Los Angeles Angels team, they also released a statement after his deal was made official by the Dodgers.
“Shohei Ohtani is a generational player and it was an honor to watch him make history throughout his six seasons he spent in an Angels uniform,” the team said in a statement released on X. “We feel extremely fortunate that Angels fans were able to witness him redefine what is possible in our sport.”