Ohtani to Dodgers for an ungodly amount of money

[ToolDRT]

3 minutes ago, CubbyBlue2008 said:

Every report I see feels like nobody really knows anything. 

“Here’s a group of teams everyone else has reported. Dodgers are favorite because I they are in LA and they’re really good.”

Tracks with Ohtani wanting it to keep quiet. I genuinely don’t think any of these dudes know much and I think we are all gonna find out the winner at the same time, more or less.

My only thing is it seems like several reporters get the same “vibe” from somewhere. Whether they’re just stealing from each other or not is the question. But last week we seemed to be the hot pick and now it seems to be the jays. 
 

That said, I do think Rogers is being genuine here. I’m sure little rumblings are leaking and as of now we’re not the “favorite”. Frankly, now that the bidding seems to be nearing the 600mil mark I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing. 

[s2obed]

23 minutes ago, ToolDRT said:

Ahh I see it. Dang. 
 

 

This just sounds like speculation. They’re still in it though. 

[David]

3 minutes ago, ToolDRT said:

My only thing is it seems like several reporters get the same “vibe” from somewhere. Whether they’re just stealing from each other or not is the question. But last week we seemed to be the hot pick and now it seems to be the jays. 
 

That said, I do think Rogers is being genuine here. I’m sure little rumblings are leaking and as of now we’re not the “favorite”. Frankly, now that the bidding seems to be nearing the 600mil mark I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing. 

They're just picking the most obvious narrative (and mostly without a ton of conviction) lol

[David]

9 minutes ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

600 mil is kind of wacky, better be some serious protections in that contract based on innings pitched/number of starts 

The increases in revenues that would come with Ohtani are also wacky.

[Have a seat, Neifi]

Can’t wait to see the final numbers on this thing.  Coming into the off-season, I was thinking something like 12 / $500 million with as many opt-outs as he wants, but it sounds like the deal may be much higher than that. 

[NorthsideAvenger]

32 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Feels like the type of speculation we've seen. "Probably" and "felt". Seems cut from the same cloth as the Olney stuff before. Fair assumptions that the Dodgers are the easy choice, but without concrete knowledge of it.

Yep. "Felt" and "probably" are vague words. It gives Rogers enough wiggle room in case he is wrong. 

 

[CubinNY]

I don't think anything said should change anyone's expectations about what might happen. The funny thing to me is, that I was never that much into Ohtani coming to the Cubs for several reasons. Now, it's just the opposite. 

[Jason Ross]

5 minutes ago, NorthsideAvenger said:

Yep. "Felt" and "probably" are vague words. It gives Rogers enough wiggle room in case he is wrong. 

 

I'm not even sure he's worried about being wrong. I think this entire process is really that secretive. The feeling I get here is that everyone is really that in the dark. Every team is being that quiet and leaks are that impossible. It's all "feelings" and "probablys" because they have such little actual information. Obviously I don't know myself anything, but I really think everyone is going to be surprised to some degree (either the timing, the announcement, the team, the number...) in some way when it finally hits. Including people who usually have a line on these things.

Edited December 1, 2023 by 1908_Cubs

[ToolDRT]

I want this. I want this bad. And frankly it’s starting to drive me crazy. This is just such a weird offseason where after the top free agents there’s such a drop off that I don’t know how you put together a notably better team without signing a Ohtani/Yamamoto or trading for a Soto. 
 

The idea of settling for Matt Chapman sickens me. I loved Belli this year, but I have some concerns with him on a mega deal. It’s just…Ohtani would be a coup. 

[UMFan83]

I want it, ridiculous contract and all because its not often that one of the greatest players in baseball history is available in FA for anyone to have and the Cubs apparently have legitimate interest.  It might backfire horribly to sign a 30 year old to a 12 year ridiculous deal, especially not knowing what his pitching future is, but the dopamine hit for the first couple years would be amazing.

[ToolDRT]

 

[soccer10k]

4 hours ago, thawv said:

Not to mention the 46% income tax, and 13% sales tax in Toronto.  I would find it hard to believe that something like that doesn't come in to play while making a decision.  Not matter how much a person makes.  

Maybe I don’t understand because I don’t make millions of dollars per year, but I don’t think I wouldn care about taxes at all in that case unless all else was equal about two places and I couldn’t decide.

[UMFan83]

1 minute ago, ToolDRT said:

 

[ToolDRT]

1 minute ago, UMFan83 said:

Man, I can’t believe we have to deal with this for at least a few more days.🤣

I was hoping it’d be done by now so we could get into winter meetings mode knowing what we need. 

[CubinNY]

10 minutes ago, ToolDRT said:

 

Why aren't they meeting in Nashville? This is all carzy.

[mul21]

9 minutes ago, soccer10k said:

Maybe I don’t understand because I don’t make millions of dollars per year, but I don’t think I wouldn care about taxes at all in that case unless all else was equal about two places and I couldn’t decide.

What's funny is that his tax rate in Illinois wouldn't be that different.  37% federally plus 5% state tax gets you right to the Toronto number.

[Brian707]

11 minutes ago, soccer10k said:

Maybe I don’t understand because I don’t make millions of dollars per year, but I don’t think I wouldn care about taxes at all in that case unless all else was equal about two places and I couldn’t decide.

Yeah this argument keeps being brought up here lol. It makes no sense, maybe people are just trying to convince themselves he is coming to the Cubs. I would be very, very shocked if he ends up here or anywhere not named LAD. Don't buy the Toronto BS, its seems to me all along the Cubs and others in the mix are simply bargaining chips to up the LAD offer.

[gocubs218]

3 minutes ago, Brian707 said:

Yeah this argument keeps being brought up here lol. It makes no sense, maybe people are just trying to convince themselves he is coming to the Cubs. I would be very, very shocked if he ends up here or anywhere not named LAD. Don't buy the Toronto BS, its seems to me all along the Cubs and others in the mix are simply bargaining chips to up the LAD offer.

The leverage argument doesn’t make sense either. Ohtani is going to get his bag whether the Cubs are involved or not.

[Rcal10]

1 minute ago, Brian707 said:

Yeah this argument keeps being brought up here lol. It makes no sense, maybe people are just trying to convince themselves he is coming to the Cubs. I would be very, very shocked if he ends up here or anywhere not named LAD. Don't buy the Toronto BS, its seems to me all along the Cubs and others in the mix are simply bargaining chips to up the LAD offer.

I can accept LA being the winner of Ohtani for the very same reason you mentioned. I would be fine with the Cubs effort and accept there want anything they could do to change his mind. But if he does go anywhere else I would be upset with the FO.

[UMFan83]

Obviously I want him to go to the Cubs, but if not the Cubs the Dodgers would be so boring and stupid for baseball.  Oh great the Dodgers have Ohtani now, another west coast team with games on too late for most of the country to watch, oh great another superstar that will blend in with their collection of superstars.  Oh great, the Dodgers move from World Series favorites to....World Series favorites.  How exciting for the game.

Edited December 1, 2023 by UMFan83

[CubinNY]

5 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

I can accept LA being the winner of Ohtani for the very same reason you mentioned. I would be fine with the Cubs effort and accept there want anything they could do to change his mind. But if he does go anywhere else I would be upset with the FO.

I don't understand how people could get mad at the Cubs unless it came out that the offer was laughable or that it was rejected early on because it wasn't in the same tier as the others. This decision is in the hands of Ohtani. It's his to make. 

[Rcal10]

3 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

I don't understand how people could get mad at the Cubs unless it came out that the offer was laughable or that it was rejected early on because it wasn't in the same tier as the others. This decision is in the hands of Ohtani. It's his to make. 

I don’t think I would say I was mad at the Cubs if they didn’t get him. I would be very disappointed in them for not selling the team, the city, the ballpark, and the fans better to him so that he would pick Chicago. Where if he went to LA I would just assume it was always an uphill battle because that is where he wanted to go all along. 

[Bertz]

So my read on the situation from various reports flying is basically that Shohei's just finished making the rounds to all of the suitors and hearing their pitch.  This weekend teams will come to LA, make their bids/closing arguments, and then it should be done?  So we're looking at Sunday or Monday probably?

[David]

29 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

Why aren't they meeting in Nashville? This is all carzy.

Well, he lives in LA, and I'm not sure they have any intent of even going to Nashville to begin with.  Seems like the reports that he wants this done ahead of the winter meetings are accurate as it all appears to be coming to a head.

[David]

Just now, Bertz said:

So my read on the situation from various reports flying is basically that Shohei's just finished making the rounds to all of the suitors and hearing their pitch.  This weekend teams will come to LA, make their bids/closing arguments, and then it should be done?  So we're looking at Sunday or Monday probably?

Based on nothing but my vibe from following the story, it feels like it'll be over this weekend.