LA Dodgers gave Ohtani an astronomical contract
The Los Angeles Dodgers gave Shohei Ohtani, 30, an astronomical contract, but they’ll get more than that in return.
“Ohtani is a great player,” said Yahoo Sports on April 2 (KST). But that’s not the only reason the Dodgers were so eager to sign him. At least two other teams have agreed to terms with Ohtani. The team that signs Ohtani will have acquired one of the most valuable assets in sports in terms of marketing and cultural impact, and an athlete who has earned $50 million in endorsement revenue alone.”
Ohtani is a superstar in the major leagues with career numbers of 701 games (2483 at-bats, 681 hits), 171 home runs, 437 RBI, 428 runs scored, 86 doubles, .922 OPS, and 86 games (481⅔ innings) as a pitcher with a 38-19 record and 3.01 ERA. He won the American League Rookie of the Year in 2018 and was a unanimous choice for the American League MVP in 2021 and 2023, 토토사이트 becoming the first player in major league history to win two unanimous MVP awards.
After becoming a free agent at the end of last season,
Ohtani shocked the baseball world by signing a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers. It was the largest contract in professional sports history, surpassing the previous major league record of 12 years and $426.5 million by Mike Trout (Angels) and five years and $674 million by Lionel Messi (Barcelona). It has since been revealed that $680 million of the $700 million was paid in deferred payments starting after the 10th year, bringing the actual value of the contract to about $460 million, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a deal that will go down in Major League Baseball history.
The outlet broke down the returns the Dodgers will and won’t get from Ohtani. Some of it is predictable, and some of it is not what you might think.
The most prominent is definitely the advertising from Japanese companies. Yahoo Sports asked, “Watch Otani’s highlight reel in 2022 and guess how many Japanese companies’ ads you’ll see at Angels Stadium. The answer is five. Bandai Namco, Daiso, and Yakult behind home plate, and Yokohama Tire, Funai, and Yakult in left field.” “The Dodgers are expected to add Yoshinobu Yamamoto, which will further increase the cost of advertising.”
Teams can also sell stadium naming rights.
“Renaming the stadium seems unlikely, but Dodger Stadium could be renamed something like ‘Honda Field,'” Yahoo Sports said. The Dodgers considered selling the naming rights in 2017 for $12 million a year, and now the value would have risen to $20 million a year.”
The Dodgers also benefited from using the deferred payments in Ohtani’s contract to sign other players. Ohtani requested that the money saved on his contract be used to bolster the pitching staff, and the Dodgers did just that, starting with giving Yamamoto the largest contract ever for a pitcher (12 years, $325 million) and adding Tyler Glasnow (5 years, $135 million), Teoscar Hernandez (1 year, $23.5 million), and James Paxton (1 year, $11 million).
While the addition of Ohtani certainly helps, there are areas where it doesn’t make a huge impact. Contrary to what many people may think, it’s in the areas of broadcast rights and attendance. As Yahoo Sports notes, “Slowly declining cable ratings and subscriptions are a long-term threat to Major League Baseball. Acquiring Ohtani is a great way to ensure the value of local rights deals, but the Dodgers already have a solid rights deal in place.” In terms of attendance, the Dodgers already have the largest stadium in the majors (56,000) and the highest average attendance (47,731 last year), so adding Ohtani would help, but not significantly.
Ohtani’s jersey sales and Japanese broadcast rights won’t benefit the Dodgers either.
Yahoo Sports reports that “sales of Dodgers merchandise in Japan have surged 8350 percent since Ohtani’s signing, but Major League Baseball splits revenue equally with all teams when they sign with Panatics or Nike. The surge in merchandise sales with Ohtani means that all 30 Major League Baseball teams are doing well, not just the Dodgers. Even the broadcast rights we sell to Japan are not monopolized by the Dodgers, but are shared by all 30 major league teams.”
Another thing that is particularly helpful for the Dodgers is that it gives them a slight edge over other teams when it comes to signing future major leaguer Roki Sasaki (Chiba Lotte). Sasaki is an ace with a fastball that tops out at over 160 kilometers per hour, and he became the youngest player in Nippon Professional Baseball to throw a perfect game in 2022. 사설 토토사이트 He tried to make the jump to the major leagues this winter, but his club didn’t allow it.
Yahoo Sports wrote: “Let’s assume Sasaki comes to the majors before he turns 25, when he’s not greedy for money and can sign a big contract, then it would be pretty good for him to come to the Dodgers, who have a decade of steady performance and two of the most recognizable Japanese players. But you have to recognize that those advantages are very small.” On the effects of the Ohtani signing