Shohei Ohtani has simply signed the most important contract in baseball historical past. 10 years for $700 million with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Whereas there have been different groups within the working, nobody was nearer to touchdown Ohtani than the Toronto Blue Jays. Everybody was in a frenzy. Studying that the Japanese celebrity was in Florida on the Jays’ spring coaching facility, monitoring a non-public jet flying from Santa Ana to Toronto, to information breaking that didn’t find yourself being true, it was so shut however nonetheless to this point for the Canadian membership.
However, what would have occurred if Ohtani did go there?
Contract logistics
Firstly, let’s speak about if they may even have signed him. They’d cash within the price range for positive, but it surely was first estimated that no matter membership landed Ohtani would wish to pay between $500 and $600 million. The Blue Jays have an energetic whole payroll of $128,964,255 for 2024 in keeping with Spotrac. Their whole is projected by their calculations to be over $190 billion. All to say, they may have afforded the $700 million that the Dodgers received Ohtani for. They positively might have signed him, however it seems that staying in California was an even bigger draw.
What does Ohtani deliver them?
Including Ohtani to any lineup immediately improves it. No matter hitting or pitching, he’s a twin risk and has proved that all through his time with the Angels. Whereas he might not pitch a lot or in any respect in 2024 after coming off of elbow surgical procedure, he can match that designated hitter function and work himself right into a rotation with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the Blue Jays’ present DH. If he is ready to pitch in any respect subsequent season, he is not going to solely strengthen their mound presence, however assist the catchers enhance too.
Final season, Ohtani had 151 hits in 497 at-bats and a median of .304. He hit 44 dwelling runs, fourth greatest within the league. He additionally had 95 RBIs. Pitching-wise, he threw for 23 video games and had 163 strikeouts and an ERA of three.14. Whereas these won’t be his greatest pitching stats for a season, his batting common would put him because the fifth-best batter final season based mostly on batting common for the Blue Jays and the ninth-best pitcher by way of ERA.
So, not solely does he deliver that presence of somebody who’s so good at baseball it’s scary, however he brings reduction to a Blue Jays roster that struggled with leaving gamers stranded on base. He might have pulled a really succesful roster to their full potential. Consider Michael Jordan when he rejoined the Bulls in 1995. They have been good, however they may have been higher. As soon as he returned, they went 13-4 and clinched a playoff spot. Extremely proficient gamers have the potential to deliver that drive and competitiveness to any roster they be part of.
What went incorrect?
We gained’t know all the small print that led to Ohtani’s choice till he talks about it within the ensuing press convention that he alluded to in his Instagram publish, however there are some massive prospects. One being that staying in California retains him near dwelling geographically. Japan remains to be virtually a 12-hour flight away from Los Angeles, but it surely’s quite a bit nearer than Toronto can be. The opposite being that there’s hope that his longevity is not going to be broken after his elbow surgical procedure. Spending $700 million on anyone (or something, truthfully) is a ginormous threat. What if it doesn’t play out? What if he can’t pitch like he used to? It’s a legitimate concern, and possibly Toronto simply didn’t need to go away any doubts on the desk after they have been considering of drawing up the contract. They needed to be assured, and so they weren’t positive they may very well be. That looks like probably the most logical purpose why. The cash was there, the roster spot and alternative have been there, however possibly the boldness simply wasn’t.