Shohei Ohtani Just Shocked the World And Signed With The Dodgers For 10 Years/$700 Million Dollars

Holy shit. $700 Million dollars? The Dodgers? So much to unpack here.

First off, we need to retire the idea that Shohei Ohtani doesn't care about winning. He just joined the Dodgers who have won 100+ games in a row each of the last four full seasons. He'll be playing in his first career playoff game about 10 months from now. Ohtani clearly wants to win and he's about to do so.

The Dodgers, to their credit, have been preparing for this day for years. They structured contracts to end early so they'd have room to make this move. Even last year, they held back on spending. They entered the off-season with only $125 million dollars on the books. They are managed so brilliantly, they'll have a core of Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman together for the next four seasons. Betts and Ohtani will be Dodger teammates through the 2032 season.

Ronald Martinez. Getty Images.

Imagine being an Angels fan? It's heartbreaking to see your best player leave as a free agent. Having him stay in the same city is brutal. It's like getting divorced but having your ex-wife buy the house next door. The Angels are going to be terrible next year and beyond considering how bad that farm system is. It's not going to be fun seeing Ohtani playing October baseball while Arte Moreno stumbles around spending money and assets on mediocre players while Mike Trout continues to deteriorate. 

Blue Jays fans must be stunned.19 hours ago, we all expected to see Ohtani joining a core of Bo Bichette and Vladdy Jr. Now, they are left with nothing in a division that got a lot tougher now that the Yankees have Juan Soto. By all accounts, they were willing to spend to get Ohtani but will they use those resources to get other players? Maybe Cody Bellinger and Blake Snell?

But the real story is the Dodgers and what this means for a franchise that has starting to get a reputation as playoff failures despite the 2020 title. Ohtani won't be able to pitch next year and the Dodgers do need starting pitching help. But even with signing Ohtani to a $70 million (!!!!!) per year deal, they can go out and get that pitching help. Jordan Montgomery? Blake Snell? Both? Is anything off the table with this team now? Sounds like Ohtani wants them to go get more pieces.

The best organization in baseball just got the best player in baseball. This is how teams win rings. This is Reggie Jackson signing as a free agent with the Yankees in 1977 and immediately winning two World Series titles. This is Greg Maddux signing with the Braves and joining an already great pitching staff in 1993. This is Randy Johnson joining a one year old Diamondbacks team and winning a World Series a couple years later.

It's all of those things and yet somehow even bigger. This is more important than A-Rod going to the Rangers because that team was dogshit at the time. With apologies to Maddux and David Ortiz, this is the biggest MLB free agent signing of my lifetime. The only one in American sports bigger is Lebron joining the Heat. But as huge as that was, it was short and they only won two titles.

How many will we see Ohtani win?