Shohei Ohtani wore the Dodgers jersey for the first time this Thursday. He did it in front of hundreds of journalists. Many of them have arrived from Japan in the last few hours to witness who has become the biggest news in American sports this winter. The Japanese baseball player's signing has monopolized the press as he finally pulled the daisy and announced on Instagram that he had decided on a new destination. “When I met with the team owners, they told me that they consider not winning a championship a failure. That’s what convinced me to be here. I want to do it and show people that I was an important part of that winning team,” said Ohtani, who hasn’t played a single playoff game since arriving in the United States six years ago.
The 29-year-old Ohtani has signed a contract with the Los Angeles team worth $700 million (around €640 million) for the next ten years: it is the most expensive contract in the history of the sport. This came after hearing offers from the San Francisco Giants and Toronto Blue Jays. It is one of the highest scores ever achieved by a professional in the United States. He will only receive $20 million over the next decade. The remainder will be paid out by the Dodgers without interest between 2034 and 2043. This arrangement will allow a team that last won a title in 2020 to further strengthen its squad. “My calculation is that I could defer this large amount of money so that the Dodgers could hire other people,” the player, a two-time winner of the American League MVP award, explained this afternoon. This afternoon was his first press conference in four months.
The model will allow Ohtani to receive the bulk of the money without giving tax authorities a huge tax holiday. California has a rate of 13.3%. The athlete can avoid this if he receives his money and no longer lives in the state. In this way, the Dodgers have invested a large pot in the future. The Los Angeles organization has pledged to pay its key stars $857 million in salaries through 2044. Mookie Betts will receive $120 million and Freddie Freeman will receive $57 million.
Financier Mark Walter is one of the characters who made one of the largest contracts in the history of sports a reality. This Thursday he appeared to the right of Ohtani. Since 2012, he has been one of the owners of the Dodgers, a team he bought for $2.15 billion, an offer that exceeded that of his nearest rival by more than $800 million. The Chicago manager is president of Guggenheim Partners, a stock market investment advisory firm. The group has other, more public faces, such as Lakers legend Earving Magic Johnson.
“I have never seen such a crowded press conference. “I remember when Shaquille O'Neill came to the Lakers in 1996, Wayne Gretzky to the Kings (of the NHL), Fernando Valenzuela, but nothing comes close to the interest the press has shown in a figure like Ohtani,” the player said this Thursday. Ecuadorian Jaime Jarrín, who has been the Spanish voice of the Dodgers for 65 years.
The press waits to enter Dodger Stadium for Shohei Ohtani's presentation. CAROLINE BREHMAN (EFE)
Takeshi Watanabe, sports editor of the Japanese newspaper Nikkei and part of the large delegation of journalists from Asia, explained the phenomenon that has taken the major leagues by storm. “Shohei is the only athlete in Japan to have a daily television program dedicated to him. Even if I don’t play,” he says.
Ohtani is not the first Japanese to wear the Dodgers jersey. The team was home to another legend of Asian baseball, pitcher Hideo Nomo, who came from the island to become the 1995 MLB Rookie of the Year. Nomo, one of the characters Ohtani idolized as a young man, was key to broadening the path for those who would follow him: Hiroki Kuroda, Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui, among others. “Ohtani is much stronger at hitting and as a pitcher than them,” Watanabe said.
A mysterious operation
The team has bet its future on a figure like Ohtani, even though he is not yet 100% fit. The star underwent surgery this fall after injuring himself while pitching in August. It is the second procedure he has undergone after elbow ligament reconstruction in 2018. In the United States, the operation is known as Tommy John surgery in honor of the first pitcher to return to play after his injury in 1974. Because of this, he won't be able to pitch until 2025, although he will be a designated hitter next year. Before he was injured, Ohtani was struggling to become the home run leader with 44.
Ohtani did not reveal this Thursday all the secrets of the second operation, performed by the same doctor as the first, Neal ElAttreache, the main doctor of the Dodgers and Rams in the NFL. This surgery forced him to leave and virtually disappear from the locker room of his previous team, the Los Angeles Angels, for which he played for six years. “I'm not a medical expert, but I can say it was a different operation than the first one. “You should ask my doctor,” the player said in the voice of his translator and one of his closest friends, Ippei Mizuhara.
Ohtani has assured that he has regained his flexibility and this week he started hitting dry and off the ball. “I'm in good shape to be there on the first day of the season. “I am optimistic and even think I can be ready for the friendlies,” he said. It will have to be. The fans are waiting for it with devotion. Sales of Dodgers' number 17 jerseys broke records in just two days, surpassing all players who had that mark. Your name? Lionel Messi.
You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on Facebook and Xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.