MLB] Shohei Ohtani’s next contract is “8 years, $320 million,” predicts a U.S. reporter who has worked for the Angels for 10 years, “10 to 12 teams can pay him.

Last Updated on 11/27/2022 by てんしょく飯

Jeff Fletcher, who sold 45,000 copies of “Ohtani Book,” visited Japan and held an event.

Jeff Fletcher, who has been the Angels’ reporter for the Orange County Register for 10 consecutive years and has closely followed Shohei Ohtani since his rookie season, predicted that Ohtani will sign a huge contract in 2024 after he becomes a free agent next offseason. His book, “SHO-TIME: Shohei Otani: The Man Who Changed 120 Years of Major League History,” was released simultaneously in Japan and the United States this past July. The Japanese edition, published by Tokuma Shoten, has already gone through six printings and sold 45,000 copies.

Jeff Fletcher, the author of the 45,000-copy Otani book, visited Japan and held an event.

Fletcher recently visited Japan for the first time and held a talk event in Tokyo on November 26, which was attended by about 100 MLB fans who applied through SNS and other means.

Ohtani signed a one-year contract with a salary of $30 million (4.174 billion yen) for next season this October. GM Perry Minassian assured that “Ohtani will start next season with the Angels. Nevertheless, there is a possibility that he will be traded to another team during the next season, as he will become an FA next offseason in 2023.

The Angels announced their owner Art Moreno’s intention to sell the team this August. After the talk event, Fletcher told Full-Count, “After Otani becomes a free agent next offseason, how much he will be paid and how many years he will be offered, of course, will not be decided until the new owner is decided,” he explained. Moreover, “The process of negotiating the sale of the team is a top secret, and to be honest, I have no idea who is going to buy the team or when the deal will be finalized,” Fletcher said.

The Yankees, Dodgers, Angels, etc. “I think we have the financial resources to pay 10 to 12 teams.”

What kind of contract and which team’s uniform will Otani wear after becoming an FA next offseason? Fletcher said that Otani, who became the first player since 1901 to reach the pitching and batting average requirements in the same season, “is doing something so unique that there is no way to compare him to any other player. It is really difficult to predict the details of his contract,” he said.

I would venture to say that he will be paid $40 million a year for a period of seven to eight years. Therefore, my estimate is that the total amount will be $280 million (about ¥38.955 billion) to $320 million (about ¥44.5 billion).

This is less than the total amount of $426.5 million over 12 years ($59.337 billion) that fellow outfielder Mike Trout signed with the Angels before the start of the 2019 season, which at the time was considered the highest in North American sports history, but it would exceed the average annual amount. Fletcher estimates that “probably 10 to 12 of the 30 teams in the majors, including the Yankees, Dodgers, and Angels, have the financial resources to pay this amount.

It is no longer just a matter of being “an ace and a starter, two for one. Japan and the U.S. are eagerly watching every aspect of Ohtani, including the details of his contract.