PhilaPhans

Holy hell.

The Dodgers literally just destroyed the MLB salary structure for the next 20 years. LA's owner should not even be allowed at the next CBA negotiation.

Absolutely bonkers contract.
The Dodgers had the leverage of Ohtani pretty clearly not wanting to leave his home/environment in Los Angeles area. But nonetheless Ohtani's agent played their cards right and got an absolutely jaw-dropping deal. Jaw-dropping because -- if you look at this on the pessimistic side -- Ohtani is a DH-only for whom there are no guarantees about his pitching future.

Obviously, the upside is that when he's a healthy two-way player, he was the potential to be an unfathomable 12-WAR player.

Will be interesting to see what's next for the Dodgers this offseason. They can't just wait for Ohtani to fix their rotation in 2025 -- they need to find 2 October-caliber pitchers for 2024, which will not be cheap. (IMO they'd be smart to acquire one through trade; maybe Cease)

Will also be VERY interesting to see the cap hit on the 10/700 contract. You might think it's pretty easy: 70M AAV = 70M cap hit for 10 years. But apparently the deferred money changes the math. There's going to be a lot of unhappiness around MLB if the Dodgers find ways to stay under the biggest cap hit. I've seen estimates that Ohtani's cap hit could be as low as $40M, though the consensus is that it will be at least $50M, maybe $55M. That's no small number for payroll.

Well, the cap hit is still $46M per year, but the details are:

Ohtani will earn:
-- $2M per year from 2024 to 2033, the 10 years he actually plays for the Dodgers
-- $68M per year from 2034 to 2043, the following 10 years, during which time he will not be a Dodger

So the calculation puts the cap hit at $46M per year

Ohtani still makes about $50M per year in endorsements, so he's going to be OK

If nothing else, he's placing a big bet on the future of the United States.