Shohei Ohtani, the most anticipated free agent in Major League Baseball, announced on his Instagram on Saturday that he was joining the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ohtani's agent, CAA's Nez Balelo, subsequently confirmed that he had signed a 10-year pact worth $700 million, the richest contract in North American professional sports history.
Ohtani's decision to join the Dodgers follows months of speculation that they were the favorites to land him. Their exact positioning in the horserace became muddled in recent weeks with Ohtani's camp shrouding the process in secrecy. In the end, Ohtani still ended in the same destination, regardless of the interim route.
CBS Sports ranked Ohtani as the No. 1 free agent available this winter, writing the following:
Welcome to the most anticipated free agency in league history. Ohtani will not pitch next year after undergoing elbow surgery to correct a torn ulnar collateral ligament, yet he's expected to be in someone's lineup as a DH come Opening Day. (He's slated to return to the mound in 2025.) Ohtani is certain to receive a mammoth, record-breaking payday in the interim. Why wouldn't he? He's ranked in the top 10 in both ERA+ and OPS+ since debuting, and along the way has single-handedly shifted the Overton Window on two-way players. It's fair to wonder how his workload will change in the future -- perhaps he someday shifts to a relief role? -- but that's the risk you gladly stomach when you're blessed with the opportunity to sign the kind of anomaly who invokes references to Leon Day, Bullet Rogan, Martín Dihigo, and Babe Ruth. "Destiny is the music of the improbable," Kenneth Patchen once wrote. "Were it otherwise, almost anyone could exist." Make sure you find a way to enjoy Ohtani's tune this winter, even as the noise around him ramps up.
Ohtani, whose season as a pitcher ended because of elbow surgery, will not be available to pitch in 2024.