Here comes Shohei Ohtani.

[lucas80]

The Japanese prospect will come to the US next year as he will go through the posting process. This may cost him $100 million dollars versus waiting 2 years to be a free agent.
Would you give him the assurance he wants to both pitch and play in the field? This is going to get wild. He can hit 102 on the radar and has massive power potential.
The Cubs don’t project as a real player in these sweepstakes. Where do you think he will land?

 

[ICWestfan]

Wait, explain the process. Don't teams have to bid to be part of the process and then he can negotiate a contract?

Yankees and Dodgers and Cubs are about the only ones that can afford to pay him. Maybe a couple of others teams.

 

[theiacowtipper]

There's a system that determines how much money a team has to spend on international players. For some reason the cubs don't have very much.

 

[soybean]

The Japanese prospect will come to the US next year as he will go through the posting process. This may cost him $100 million dollars versus waiting 2 years to be a free agent.
Would you give him the assurance he wants to both pitch and play in the field? This is going to get wild. He can hit 102 on the radar and has massive power potential.
The Cubs don’t project as a real player in these sweepstakes. Where do you think he will land?

If can translate his game to MLB Ohtani will make that $100M up in his first 10 year $1B deal in a couple of years.

 

[MitchL]

Yankees or Rangers. I think Tanaka staying in NY gives the Yankees a bit of an edge, but I don't get too excited about Japanese players because of the competition previously.

 

[hawkifann]

There's a system that determines how much money a team has to spend on international players. For some reason the cubs don't have very much.

As I understand it, teams can put in bids up to their bid limit....but Otani doesn't have to pick the high bid.

 

[lucas80]

Maybe he loves a certain team like the Yankees or Dodgers? Maybe marketing is important? Maybe he wants a city with a large Japanese American population?
This will be fascinating.

 

[dgordo]

I just assumed it would be an AL team since he wants to DH.

 

[themelrosemauler]

A Japanese Roy Hobbs?

 

[HawkRugged17]

 

[JRHawk2003]

Jack Morris has enough money. Tell them all to F Off Jack and walk away.

Why anyone would want to do anything public today is beyond me.

 

[Red Hills Nole]

Mets. They signed Sid Finch when he came here from Nepal. He could hit 148 on the gun but could only pitch barefoot, which MLB would not make allowances for. I think he ended up playing the french horn in the NY Philharmonic.

OMG that was damn funny but it was Sidd.

 

[onlyTheObvious]

If he stays healthy, his free agent contract will be the most interesting ever.

Incredible batter and pitcher.

even if his pitching falls off some, you could use him as a closer. Heck, switch him from fielder to pitcher and back to fielder depending on matchups.

the guy is a Swiss Army knife of possibilities. At one time I thought Rickey Henderson could take over a game all by himself. This guy can top that.

 

[HawkRugged17]

 

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[WorldSeriesChamps2015]

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Piss on a spark plug!

 

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[hawkifann]

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Once the season is over, let the trade season commence. He’ll be leaving Anaheim and I think this contract is a sign that he’ll be traded. I think he could have actually gotten more in arbitration due to his unicorn status, but now there’s a set price for his services for 2023 and it’s a bargain. It’s also probably an amount where the Angels can afford to pay half of in a deal to sweeten the haul or to make it workable for a team to take on Anthony Rendon’s atrocious contract ($38M per for 4 years after 2022).

 

[lucas80]

Once the season is over, let the trade season commence. He’ll be leaving Anaheim and I think this contract is a sign that he’ll be traded. I think he could have actually gotten more in arbitration due to his unicorn status, but now there’s a set price for his services for 2023 and it’s a bargain. It’s also probably an amount where the Angels can afford to pay half of in a deal to sweeten the haul or to make it workable for a team to take on Anthony Rendon’s atrocious contract ($38M per for 4 years after 2022).

Agreed, and aren't the Angels up for sale? This really helps them out, and it's pretty clear they had no interest in prolonging anything since they know they aren't paying the whole year. Or, most likely, any of the year. Keeping him until the season starts, or all the way through to the trade deadline would be stupid. He'll never have more value than before ST starts.

 

[hawkifann]

Yep. If you’re a team that wants Ohtani, you want to max value. That means you want 30 starts and you want 150+ games with him as DH. That’s worth a crap ton. You also know you’ll have to pay a serious price to get him (because of his value) and you’re going to want to sign him long-term. Tossing him to the rental market is a terrible idea when there’s no chance the Angels will contend next year.

I did a podcast ep on the price for Ohtani. In the offseason, the Cubs, for instance, could build a deal around Hoerner or Steele or Morel and then make more offseason moves to cover that. The Angels aren’t getting that level of player in-season — if the Cubs are contending, there’s no way they create a roster hole at the trade deadline by dealing any of those guys.

 

[KuwaitHawk]

Heard there was interest from St. Louis for his services.

 

[hawkifann]

Heard there was interest from St. Louis for his services.

Maybe St. Louis can get the Angels to pay them $17M to take him.

 

[bhawk24bob]

Heard there was interest from St. Louis for his services.

Sure and I heard there's interest from 29 additional teams for his services.....I don't think he's going anywhere unless he wants to

 

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[bhawk24bob]

Who would have believed somebody say that a guy that breaks Maris' home run record on the yankees wouldn't be MVP?

 

[Cougar63]

 

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[QChawks]

boom!

dude is amazing