The average salary in America is about $60,000 a year. Shohei Ohtani’s yearly salary is 70 million. Shohei’s yearly salary is about 1,166 times more than the hardworking American citizen.  Put it in perspective, imagine a hardworking father and mother trying to provide for their families and piece together and live off 120,000 a year. But Shohei Ohtani, who just plays baseball for the Dodgers, makes 1,166 times that. How and why did the Dodgers do this?

Shohei Ohtani was born on July 5th, 1994, and grew up in Oshu, Iwate, Japan. Overall Shohei had a normal childhood. He was the youngest of three children. His mother, Toru Ohtani, was a badminton player and his dad Kayoko Ohtani was an amateur baseball player. 

Shohei’s love of baseball started when he was 8, it was taught to him by his father, which helped him develop a great skill for it at a very young age. This caused Shohei to be extremely successful, flying to the first overall pick in the 2012 Nippon Professional Baseball(NPB) draft as an 18-year-old. After more success, he changed from the NPB to the MLB and started playing for the Angels on March 29th, 2018. 

He was good his first few seasons getting most of his attention from his crazy skill of pitching and hitting but he was amazing during his 2021 campaign hitting over 100 RBIs, and 40 home runs and pitching a 10-5 season with a 3.14 ERA. This won Shohei an MVP and was the start of his legacy. To say Shohei broke baseball with his two-way play style would be putting it lightly. Shohei became a National icon, he changed baseball forever. People couldn’t get enough of watching him pitch 100 mph fastballs and then hit 450 ft home runs in the same inning. He became so much of a hero in Japan they even had a TV show dedicated to having a camera pinned to him in all of his MLB games. 

Shohei Ohtani agreed to sign his $700 million 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on December 9th, 2023. This contract is easily the biggest one in baseball history and sports history. The biggest one before Shohei Ohtani was Mike Trout’s $426.5 million contract with the Angels, Shohei’s former team. This contract also easily beats Patrick Mahomes’s $450 million contract with the Kansas City Chiefs. 

So why did the Dodgers do this? 

Shohei Ohtani has about 7.6 million followers currently while the Dodgers only have about 3.8 million. Shohei on his own has double the amount of followers than the Dodgers, and it is still gaining. The Dodgers have had no problem attracting people, winning the National League West 10 of the past 11 seasons and winning the World Series in 2020. But this is nothing compared to Shohei. 

With Shohei on the Dodgers, the amount of people that are going to buy his jersey, people buying season tickets, and following the social media platforms are all making the Dodgers money. Not only that, Shohei is loved by almost everyone in Japan, which has 126 million in population. 

With all of this, there is a higher chance that the Dodgers will make more money back and not lose money. Shohei Ohtani could be awful in a few years and yes, it would be bad for the team’s record but not for their checkbook. 

Players in the MLB throughout history have been paid an absurd amount of money and some contracts have broken the scale. In the past most big contracts have worked, but when they don’t work it’s catastrophic. 

New York Met Bobby Bonilla’s contract was so bad that he’s still being paid millions until 2035 for a 1991 signing. But there’s more.  In 2014, the Orioles, which is Chris Davis’s team, lost Nick Markakis and Nelson Cruz; two very important players. Desperate to not lose any more important players, they signed a $161 million 7-year contract with Chris Davis in 2016. Although Chris Davis only had a batting average of 2.62 in 2015, the Orioles still decided to take the risk. But after the contract, he started to have one bad season after another. Yet he is still being paid millions after he retired.

So when the Los Angeles Dodgers decided to pay Shohei Ohtani 700 million dollars it shows the absolute risk the Dodgers are willing to take. The truth is if this contract goes wrong the Dodgers franchise will be ruined for years. 

But this wasn’t necessarily a bad decision, as the Dodgers will most likely earn back their money. So although at first this might sound shocking that the Dodgers agreed to sign the contract, it seems like both the Dodgers and Ohtani could benefit from it. There are pros and cons for the Dodgers and Ohtani. Only time will tell to see if the Dodgers spent too much money on him or if the contract was the correct decision.