Ohtani to Dodgers for an ungodly amount of money

[Stratos]

1 hour ago, Rob said:

I still don't see it. There are bigger issues at stake. Namely, the league's antitrust exemption, which has been under constant fire in the last decade.

As has been stated previously in this thread, there is a specific rule governing deferrals. And it states that there is no limit. This is what the sides bargained for.

The point of the "best interests of baseball" clause is largely flexibility to deal with unforeseen circumstances. But since the owners and players bargained about this exact point, it would be an incredibly aggressive use of the clause. And having a commissioner with virtually unchecked power who uses that power aggressively would give those arguing against the league's antitrust exemption a very strong data point on their side.

And again, I would caution against thinking of this as an end-run circumventing the rules. It's not a loophole. Think of it as two separate agreements. (1) Ohtani signed a 10/$460M deal. (2) Ohtani agreed to loan the Dodgers $44M per year of that deal at ~5% interest over an additional ten years. Neither of those agreements would violate any rules on their own. There's nothing about this that is obviously bad for the game.

The best team in baseball is paying the best player in baseball 2 million next year so they can afford to go out and also sign someone like Yamamoto.  I don't see how that's good for the fans of most of the other 29 teams who would rather the sport not return to the days of the 2000's Yankees just buying up rings as much as that's possible with playoff randomness.

[mul21]

Yeah, I think something along the lines of no more than 50% of salary for any season can be deferred would be a decent thing to implement to still give teams some wiggle room but not let something as egregious as this particular contract happen in the future.

[Rex Buckingham]

7 hours ago, Stratos said:

The terms of the contract are insane. Ohtani as a man and a competitor is a freaking legend, regardless of what he does on the diamond from this point forward.  No other player is going to defer being mega-wealthy in order to win.  This is a league filled with players who risked their longterm health and life expectancy for more money via PED's.

Nobody has deferred being mega-wealthy. Ohtani makes insane amounts of money from endorsements, in addition to the 42ish million he earned in salary and bonuses from the Angels. He's already mega-wealthy you dolt

[Stratos]

5 minutes ago, Rex Buckingham said:

Nobody has deferred being mega-wealthy. Ohtani makes insane amounts of money from endorsements, in addition to the 42ish million he earned in salary and bonuses from the Angels. He's already mega-wealthy you dolt

Hey good point you poo-poo head.

[squally1313]

59 minutes ago, Stratos said:

The best team in baseball is paying the best player in baseball 2 million next year so they can afford to go out and also sign someone like Yamamoto.  I don't see how that's good for the fans of most of the other 29 teams who would rather the sport not return to the days of the 2000's Yankees just buying up rings as much as that's possible with playoff randomness.

How do you think the Dodgers are going to plan for paying $68m/year from 2034-2044? Just, deal with it when it comes up? Have a giant hole in their budget and play like a midmarket team for 10 years? Or is it possible that the $700m is essentially worthless and they're throwing $45m or so into an investment/interest bearing account every year so that when the bill finally comes due, they have the $68m they need? They're almost definitely committing significant money to the Ohtani contract every year, even if it doesn't come in the form of a check to Ohtani himself. 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

1 minute ago, squally1313 said:

How do you think the Dodgers are going to plan for paying $68m/year from 2034-2044? Just, deal with it when it comes up? Have a giant hole in their budget and play like a midmarket team for 10 years? Or is it possible that the $700m is essentially worthless and they're throwing $45m or so into an investment/interest bearing account every year so that when the bill finally comes due, they have the $68m they need? They're almost definitely committing significant money to the Ohtani contract every year, even if it doesn't come in the form of a check to Ohtani himself. 

The CBA actually requires this, or some close approximation depending on the wording.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

[JHBulls]

6 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

That’s just weird as horsefeathers and slightly uncomfortable. 

[UMFan83]

 

[17 Seconds]

10 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

 

real value? what does that mean? 

i'd rather have 700 million with the deferrals over 50m a year for the next 10

[Illiterate Scholar]

Bruce still out here trying to pretend he didn't go from "it's down to the Cubs and Dodgers" to "jk, he actually never considered the Cubs"

[Transmogrified Tiger]

3 minutes ago, 17 Seconds said:

real value? what does that mean? 

i'd rather have 700 million with the deferrals over 50m a year for the next 10

Economically you receive more value with a straight 10/500 than the deferred 700 million that Ohtani chose, because a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar 10 and 20 years from now.

[17 Seconds]

1 minute ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

Economically you receive more value with a straight 10/500 than the deferred 700 million that Ohtani chose, because a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar 10 and 20 years from now.

oh

[JHBulls]

1 hour ago, UMFan83 said:

 

I wish these media types would just move on and stop telling us which team offered what to Ohtani. It’s done, he’s a Dodger. Time to move on, Bruce. 

Edited December 16, 2023 by JHBulls

[Tryptamine]

2 minutes ago, JHBulls said:

I wish these media types would just move on and stop telling us which team offered what to Ohtani. It’s done, he’s a Dodger. Time to move on, Bruce. 

Gotta make his Cub overlords happy. Show the Cubs tried really hard, but he chose the Dodgers and there was nothing they could do about it. Rinse and repeat on all the elite tier free agents.

[Tryptamine]

Sounds like there are several 300+M offers. This might end up getting to the 350-400M area.

[We Got The Whole 9]

50 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Sounds like there are several 300+M offers. This might end up getting to the 350-400M area.

horsefeathers stupid. 

[WhyCantWeWin]

51 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Sounds like there are several 300+M offers. This might end up getting to the 350-400M area.

Are you talking about Yamamoto?

[Tryptamine]

35 minutes ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Are you talking about Yamamoto?

Yup, wrong place, sorry