Welcome to this momentous and special day in baseball and
sports history. As Shohei Otani announces on his Instagram
on Saturday afternoon that he is signing with the Los
Angeles Dodgers in what is believed to be the richest
contract, not just in baseball history but in professional
sports history. When you heard this news over the
weekend, were you as floored as the casual fan
? Because you know, you pay attention to this
kind of thing. Well, the number is staggering
, right? I mean, it's the biggest in
any sports you across the globe more than Messi exac
, that's the point. I mean, that's a
mic drop. Boom. Some clubs are in at
5550 thinking man, we're way out over our skis
right now and Mark Walter just went boom. How
about 710 years, right? This is a 10
year deal. Toronto, Atlanta, who else we
discussed Giants Angels maybe. I mean, what team
in the next 10 years you think really is gonna
be competitive for 10 more years? It's the Dodgers
. I mean, you really think if you went
to Toronto, they were gonna compete with the Yankees
and the Red Sox and be able to run away
with that division every year. No and the Orioles
, no, not gonna happen. This is like
in all of sports, I'm talking, basketball,
football, everything the Dodgers are the biggest guarantee that
they're going to be at the top of their division
. This is fascinating according to Jeff passing of ESPN
OT$700 million contract calls for to be paid only
$2 million a year for the next 10 seasons with
680 million deferred until the end of the deal.
Sources confirming to ESPN and Bob Nightingale also tweeting this
show to deferred payments beginning in 2034 to end in
24 three. So just think right now, Lonnie
$2 billion a year for 10 years and that's$68
million a year for 10 years. That's why I
mean the contract everything just boggles the mind. Dan
and I between four and five o'clock got our MB
A was an hour long online uh uh degree to
go. He gonna try to wrap our brain brain
around this. Um But more importantly, we thought
it was 70 million a year, right? That
he's gonna get paid now, it's 24 million saving
the Dodgers, which is one really great player or
two really good players. So interesting, if his
goal is to win as many times as he can
over this 10 year period and most stars goal is
that they need pitching depth. Right. We saw
it on the big stage in October is Yamamoto in
play. Well, they're in on him and again
, I, you know, maybe the deferred compensation
will give them financial flexibility here in the short term
. But I've heard Yamamoto potentially getting a 10 year
contract as well. I thought he'd be around 220
million. I'm hearing that it could be as high
as 300 million right now. So I guess they're
in, they'll maybe defer some of that money too
, but I wouldn't be surprised if they signed a
free agent starter, whether that's Yamamoto or Snell or
Montgomery and trade for a burns or a glass now
in a deal or Dylan C, so I look
for them to add two more starting pitchers, one
in free agency, possibly Yamamoto and certainly one in
the trade market too. I'm extremely excited to be
back. Uh, you know, obviously the first
time I was a rookie, so I, I
stayed in my locker and, and tried to stay
out of the way as much as possible. But
, uh, but I played with some great people
, you know, I remember Bruce Chen was the
first guy that kind of got his hands on me
and took me under his wing and Alex Gordon,
you know, just kind of showed me the,
the way to be a professional and, and how
to do it every day. Just, you know
, I don't know, be be myself, um
, you know, try to be a good teammate
every day, uh, you know, check your
ego at the door, type type style of,
of baseball. Um, you know, just get
to know him in spring training. Um, find
out what makes them tick and then, uh,
you know, try to have some fun when it's
time to have fun. But, uh, but
definitely get our work in and, uh, you
know, do anything we can to win. I've
been really fortunate after the season was over. Um
, I was pretty much cleared to do most baseball
activities, so I've had a relatively normal off-season,
which has been very good. Um, so I'm
looking forward to get the chance to, you know
, hopefully bring some experience, hopefully, uh,
bring some of those things that I've learned in that
process and, um, you know, the Pirates
are really no secret. I think that it's young
and, and, uh, and competitive. And
so I think, you know, with the right
tools and, and, uh, you know,
with some momentum, I think we can, we
can really make some noise for more on these and
other stories. Keep it locked at mlb.com. It's
baseball everywhere.