Shohei Ohtani Gets Record $30 Million, One-Year Deal From Angels

Now Shohei Ohtani is setting records off the field.

After winning a unanimous Most Valuable Player Award last year, baseball’s lone two-way star has agreed to a one-year, $30 million contract that is the largest ever given a player eligible for arbitration.

The deal, announced over the weekend, also gives him the biggest salary hike of any arbitration-eligible player.

Ohtani earned $5.5 million in 2022, the second year of a two-season, $8.5 million contract signed before 2021 spring training. That deal covered the first two of his three years of arbitration eligibility.

Had he gone to arbitration, Ohtani could have commanded even more – a hefty sum for his proven skills as a pitcher plus another dollar-rich return for his robust performance at the plate and on the bases. No other player in the history of arbitration could have presented such arguments.

Ohtani, who doubles as a pitcher and designated hitter, will still be eligible for free agency after the 2023 season. But that could be his last with the Los Angeles Angels.

Owner Arte Moreno is seeking to sell the team and might be willing to trade Ohtani for a package of players who could move the team toward the top of the American League West and increase its appeal to potential buyers. Entering play Sunday, the Angels were 72-86, 31 games behind the front-running Houston Astros.

Ohtani, who reached the U.S. major leagues in 2018 after starring in Japan, has never played for an Angels team with a winning record.

That’s hardly his fault.

In 2021, he had 46 home runs, 26 stolen bases, and a league-high eight triples while posting a .965 OPS (on-base plus slugging) as a left-handed hitter while going 9-2 with a 3.18 earned run average and 156 strikeouts in 130 1/3 innings as a right-handed pitcher.

This year, the pitching side of his ledger improved dramatically, giving him a 15-8 mark, 2.35 ERA, and league-best 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings into the final weekend. He was averaging 0.8 home runs per nine innings and 2.4 walks per nine.

The 6-4, 210-pound Ohtani also had 34 homers, 94 runs batted in, and 11 stolen bases.

If not for the home run heroics of Aaron Judge, who chased the AL home run record of 61 set by Roger Maris in 1961, Ohtani would be favored to win his second straight MVP.

Instead, he has heard his name mentioned in trade rumors that began before the Aug. 2 deadline this year.

But any team that lands Ohtani would have to surrender a king’s ransom likely to exceed the 12-year, $430 million extension given teammate Mike Trout on March 19, 2019.

Trout, a three-time American League MVP, is one of three Angels with contracts worth at least $30 million per year, along with Ohtani and third baseman Anthony Rendon.

The Ohtani extension makes him the 20th man in the majors to receive an annual average salary of $30 million.

It wasn’t always easy for him. Critics even challenged him, suggesting he would be better off as a pitcher or hitter but not both.

Ohtani battled elbow issues, a flexor strain, and a pandemic, pitching less than two innings during the 2019 and 2020 campaigns and hitting only .190 in 175 plate appearances during the virus-shortened, 60-game season.

But the 2018 AL Rookie of the Year realized his full potential in 2021, when the 162-game schedule returned for the first time since 2019. That success continued into this season, when he continued to thrive as a fleet leadoff man and almost pitched his first no-hitter.

Even if he doesn’t win the MVP again, he’s likely to get significant support for the American League’s Cy Young Award, which he has never won.

Whether he stays in Anaheim or leaves, Ohtani is likely to remain one of the game’s great gate attractions – and perhaps its best-paid. He’ll turn 29 a week before the 2023 All-Star Game and appears to have a bright future ahead.

If that future is in Anaheim or with a contender willing to meet his rising price remains to be seen.