The Dodgers view Shohei Ohtani's $700 million valuation as an investment rather than a cost center

cCulturally, it's the biggest free agency explosion in North American sports since LeBron James left Cleveland for Miami “The Decision” from 2010. Monetarily speaking, it's much bigger than that. And competitively, it's a potential asset in the ongoing arms race between top-spending baseball clubs.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and unprecedented pitcher-designated hitter combo Shohei Ohtani have a 10-year, $700 million deal in place. When the deal closes, it will be the largest in total and annual value in American sports history. The 29-year-old announced his decision to join the Dodgers and leave the crosstown Los Angeles Angels on Saturday. The club had not yet acknowledged the pact on Sunday, likely pending the results of a physical examination, which is relevant because of a torn ulnar collateral ligament that will prevent Ohtani from pitching at least until the 2025 season. But the deal eventually comes together: Ohtani moves from Anaheim to Chavez Ravine. When he completes his move, one of the league's best teams will add its best and most marketable star.

Ohtani's brilliant play has no precedent. He is the best combination of hitting and pitching that baseball has ever seen, even better than the legendary Babe Ruth, who pitched well for a few years but quickly gave it up to focus on his bat full-time. Ohtani's UCL injury means the Dodgers will have to wait to realize his production as one of the game's best pitchers. But if he does take the mound, he should be an anchor at the heart of the team's pitching staff: Over the past three years, he has posted a 2.84 earned run average (ninth best among qualified players) and struck out more than 11 per nine innings. Ohtani possesses a vicious 90-mph fastball and a slow, rushing curveball. Hitters have also struggled to gain ground.

However, the Japanese star will immediately start batting. When Ohtani won American League MVP honors for the second time in 2023, he especially shined at the plate. Ohtani hit 44 home runs and probably would have belted 50 had an injury not ended his season in early September. (He left the yard on 31.2% of his flyballs; no one else even reached 28%.) Ohtani destroys the ball, and unlike many sluggers, he does so on all pitches and without racking up major strikeouts. He will immediately give the Dodgers the best designated hitter in the game. In that capacity (if not as a pitcher), Ohtani will happily play half his games at Dodger Stadium, the second friendliest ballpark for home run mashers like him.

Japanese fans flocked to buy special editions announcing the news of Shohei Ohtani's record deal in the MLS. Photo: JIJI Press/AFP/Getty Images

The on-field payoff for the Dodgers is obvious, but they will also see a substantial business return if they sign Ohtani. MLB clubs guard their books voraciously, but they aren't in the business of spending money without the expectation of making it back. The Dodgers have determined that Ohtani's $70 million per year is probably not too rich, as they expect a huge increase in everything from ticket sales to merchandise and ratings. (Ohtani's status as an international star undoubtedly supports their theory.) The Dodgers understand that exceptional baseball players are not a cost, but an investment, and if Ohtani plays games in their uniform, the club will reap a huge return. That return will be especially lucrative in Japan, where he is the country's most famous athlete, if not its most famous person. fans in his home country on Sunday queuing to buy special editions of newspapers announcing the move. The population of Japan is almost 125 million – that's a lot of potential Dodgers jersey sales.

Ohtani's move will pay off for baseball fans outside Japan as they will finally get to see a brilliant player in meaningful late-season games. The great baseball tragedy – or rather travesty – of the past six years is that the Angels failed to make a single postseason appearance while having both Ohtani and future Hall of Fame center fielder Mike Trout. Those failures clearly left an impression on Ohtani, who agreed to significant salary deferrals to allow the Dodgers to spend money on a competitive team around him while receiving lower penalties under MLB's revenue sharing protocols. The Dodgers are annual playoff contenders — they've won the National League West 10 times in 11 years — and, even before adding Ohtani, showed no signs of missing out anytime soon. They insert him into a lineup that already features megastars like outfielder Mookie Betts and first baseman Freddie Freeman. By a conservative estimate, the Dodgers now have three of the ten best hitters in the world.

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Although they won the World Series in a pandemic-plagued 2020 season, the Dodgers have otherwise made a tradition of blazing out of the postseason in spectacular fashion. There are no guarantees that things will go well in October, even if Ohtani joins Freeman and Betts to form one of the most fearsome lineup cores in baseball history. But adding Ohtani is an announcement to the rest of the sport that the Dodgers plan to keep hammering away until they turn their 100-win regular seasons into playoff successes more often. When they finally do, Ohtani's presence means everyone will be watching.