Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani got paid and then he won a World Series. Had he been able to look into the future to guarantee those two outcomes when he became a free agent in November 2023, he would have been extremely happy with his results.
Ohtani’s deal with the Dodgers was worth $700M over 10 years. He had other suitors, of course, but staying in L.A. while chasing championships ultimately made sense for the two-way superstar.
A 10 year contract with that kind of money is no joke, but Ohtani could have went after even more years than a decade. Case in point, Juan Soto signed a 15-year, $765M contract with the New York Mets a year later.
Ohtani could have went for more than 10, but his agent, Nez Balelo, has no regrets. It sounds like Ohtani has none, either.
“We wouldn’t do anything different,” Balelo said at Sportico’s Invest West conference on Thursday, according to the Associated Press via ESPN. “He won a championship. He went to the right team. No regrets.”
While there are no regrets for Ohtani and his representation, Balelo was very clear that his client could have gotten just about anything he would have wanted in terms of guaranteed years.
While there are no regrets for Ohtani and his representation, Balelo was very clear that his client could have gotten just about anything he would have wanted in terms of guaranteed years.
“We could have went to 13, 14, 15 years,” Balelo said. “But Shohei wanted to always kind of keep the integrity of where he’s at as a player. He just didn’t want to have the end of his storybook career tail off and then on year 13, 14 and 15, it’s just like who is this guy? You can’t even run down first and he’s not a guy anymore.”
Ohtani is 30 right now and he’ll be 38 when his current deal ends. Had he went for something like a 15-year deal, that would have locked him up until he was 43, and who knows what his game would look like at that point?
Sure, he’s a two-way superstar right now, but he does have an injury history and Father Time is undefeated against even the best athletes.
Those extra years of guarantees would have probably been nice for Ohtani, but it’s not like he needed them. He’s an international superstar and has made a ton of money apart from his MLB contracts.
Balelo confirmed at the event that Ohtani’s endorsement pay has jumped up from $65M to $100M after he won his third MVP and his first World Series.
Yeah, absolutely, those are real numbers,” Balelo said. “It continues to take on a life of its own.”
Ultimately, Ohtani could have gotten whatever he wanted, but he’ll never really need anyhow, at least in a financial sense. So why not be fair to the Dodgers so that they can build a consistent championship team around him?
“The Dodgers gave us their word that’s what they were going to do,” Balelo said.
So far so good for both parties.
