Shohei Ohtani

FOND DU LAC – I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later based on the way the pro sports world has grown financially over the years. But this was still a shocker.

When I was a young kid in 1961 with a few pro football-playing neighbors as friends I thought that the player who told me he made $7500 per season was a rich guy. And in that era, relatively speaking he was doing better than most working stiffs. But then I could go across West 7th Street in St. Paul to King Henry’s for lunch and get a hamburger, fries and chocolate shake for 75 cents. Was it all relative? Maybe! 

So when the Los Angeles Angels 2023 season (73-89) came to an end, much of the focus of the pro baseball world turned to the unrestricted free agent Shohei Ohtani from Japan. It had been rumored that he could be in line for the biggest contract in pro baseball history. And that is what he eventually got. After some shopping around and negotiating he would sign a 10 year-$700 million dollar deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

This was a head-scratcher to an extent because most seasoned baseball execs believed he would come in with a deal closer to $500 million. That's still formidable money, but why would the Dodgers overpay like that if it is determined they actually did?  

Several thoughts come to mind immediately. With the Dodgers already in the MLB top 10 for payroll expenditures you might say that the "rich just got richer." You wouldn't be incorrect. And without a true functioning "salary cap" in baseball they have a thing called the "luxury tax." To make it sound as if it actually does anything MLB calls it the "Competitive Balance Tax."

But it doesn't really seem as if it is a financial mechanism for leveling the playing field in MLB. It hasn't created parity for instance. The Kansas City Royals won the World Series in 2015 and haven't finished above 3rd place in their division since including this past season's dismal 56-106 showing. How is the CBT helping them be competitive?  

With Ohtani set to receive $70 mil per season, $46 mil of that will count towards the Dodgers luxury tax "threshold." That is a number that is predetermined before each season and in the case of the Dodgers, their 2024 threshold has been configured at $237 million. If they go over it, that's when the CBT kicks in. It obviously isn't a deterrent in the way a hard salary cap would be. The Dodgers can afford it and then some. Could the Royals afford something like that? As a small market team, could they ever have a payroll that would put them in that big dollar stratosphere? It's unlikely.  

To confound matters further Ohtani is going to take only $2 million in salary per year and defer the remainder of the compensation until the contract expires. He will take $20 mil over the term and get the $680 million financial rainbow at the end of it. The way it will work is from 2024-2033 he will get the aforementioned $2 million per.  

From 2034 until 2043 he will get $68 million per. He'll be 40 years old by that time and would presumably be finished with his playing career. I'm guessing that his earnings here far outweigh what he earned when he signed his first pro deal with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters at the age of 18.  

Many fans will shake their heads and wonder where our societal values or priorities lie. I understand that and then some. But pro sports aren't just pro sports anymore. These athletes are also considered to be "entertainers" nowadays. And even if pro athletes didn't make gargantuan amounts of money at one time, entertainers have always been well compensated. It seems as if combining the two entities into one allows some to excuse the possibility of unchecked greed here.  

Some will ask if these individuals are "worth it." I have pondered this question before. I had a theory explained to me in "market" terms once. That person stated that what these athletes receive is what the market will pay them for their services.

For instance, if Ohtani is one of the absolute best players in the world, what is that worth? The answer at this point in time is that the contract he received was determined to be of "fair market value." I mean, can your neighbor play at Ohtanis level? No, and the number of people on the planet that can is extremely finite.  

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that this player is indeed extraordinary on a baseball diamond. He can play the outfield and he can pitch. He has played at the designated hitter spot. He can hit for power or for bases. And he can perform most of these things better than anyone else. I would also consider that the Dodgers have done their due diligence on exactly how they will get their "return on investment." If they haven't, shame on them.   Ohtani is an excellent player with few equals. He is a baseball legend both at home in his native Japan, and at least in the greater LA area here. He is a high-integrity person and a class act. I am still trying to ferret out all of the questions surrounding this deal and if it will ultimately be looked upon as having been good for the team and for MLB itself. But in the meantime I'm of the belief that if a player was bound to get a deal like this at some point in the scheme of all things baseball, I'm glad it is this player. He is just flat-out pretty good, on the field and off of it.  

All is not well in The State of Hockey. A scandal of some sort has occurred off of the ice with the Minnesota Wild and while a few details have been coming out here and there, not much is known as to what exactly did happen. What is known is that it involves some verbal abuse of some sort by one person, alleged to be no less than team President of Hockey Operations and GM Bill Guerin. The person on the other end of the alleged abuse is Director of Team Operations Andrew Heydt.    

In addition, team Assistant GM, Chris O'Hearn and the club had suddenly "mutually agreed" to part ways whatever that means. IMO it happened too suddenly for me to believe it was a mutual decision or even agreed upon by both parties. In that instance, little is still known about what led to that issue. At this point I can only think that we will have to let some time pass before we know what happened or that we might possess enough information to be able to piece together a reasonable explanation of such. The team has been tight-lipped about it, even stating that no further explanation would be forthcoming. So, yikes is about all I can say!  
And for all followers of The Reader I wish you a great Holiday Season, along with happiness and safe travels! Enjoy your family and friends! PEACE