A Year After Breaking the Record, Shohei Ohtani Has Already Paid Back His $700M Salary to Dodgers
December 18, 2024
A Year After Breaking the Record, Shohei Ohtani Has Already Paid Back His $700M Salary to Dodgers
18 comments
[deleted]
I’ve been saying this for over a year now. The Dodgers didn’t sign Ohtani for $700 million, they purchased a near-monopoly over the MLB market in Japan for $700 million. Ohtani the player is functionally free.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding but this seems like a bad line of reasoning. If you invest X dollars in an org, you’d expect its valuation to go up by around X. If it doesn’t, that just means the investment might have been an overpay/underpay. It doesn’t represent profit that he’s made for them that they have in hand and wouldn’t otherwise.
I’ve been saying this since at least late August.
Guggenheim is a financial services/investment firm. They don’t have to pay Shohei for another 9 years. They could’ve made $120M additional ad revenue last year and then they could invest it for the next 9 years and watch it turn into $350M. If Shohei hasn’t already paid back his salary to the Dodgers in one year, it’ll be paid by year 2.
>The $700M gamble paid off big time for the Dodgers.
😂 Not really a gamble. Nez Balelo said he had a vision, Andrew Friedman bought into that vision, ownership bought into that vision, and here they are today, executing that vision and reaping the rewards.
Not to mention that Ohtani smartly and unselfishly deferred 97% of his contract. So the $460M-ish present day value of his contract is actually in the range-ish of what Mike Trout got in his mega extension, and is helping the team maintain payroll and roster flexibility.
Just smart baseball business and baseball operations decisions all around.
My low-key hope is with the increasing Japanese influence and presence in LA, the city eventually transforms into having a more Tokyo-like built environment
To think that Arte Moreno squandered away Ohtani’s SIX years of his prime. Six. Years.
Ohtani and the dodgers as a whole accomplished so much in a single year. If you told me the list of accomplishment they did last year was over a span of 4-5 years I would still be very happy.
No argument that Shohei’s deal will pay for itself in the end, but the math the writer presents to support the headline is just downright awful. Team valuation increasing by $700M does not equal realized revenue, unless you’re able to borrow against or convert equity to cash.
Id love to see a more specific analysis of revenue increases. This is generally very general. I have no doubt it will be profitable.
GOAT
Literally any number we paid to sign a unicorn was worth it. Profits aside, he helped us win another title. He’s been and will be worth the investment
This is clickbait lol. Nothing has been “paid back”
Worth every penny, from baseball and outside baseball. he brought a lot of advertising to dodgers and world series thropy.
The World Series drew around 12-15 million viewers in the United States but it also had another 12-15 million viewers from Japan. 10 percent of the population of Japan watched the World Series at 9 AM local time.
The Dodgers invested in a generational talent but also the Japanese market and Ohtani didn’t disappoint.
Dodgers only paid him 2 million best contact ever
Dodgers invested. Cohen and the Mets paid full price if not overpaid. We shall see.
18 comments
[deleted]
I’ve been saying this for over a year now. The Dodgers didn’t sign Ohtani for $700 million, they purchased a near-monopoly over the MLB market in Japan for $700 million. Ohtani the player is functionally free.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding but this seems like a bad line of reasoning. If you invest X dollars in an org, you’d expect its valuation to go up by around X. If it doesn’t, that just means the investment might have been an overpay/underpay. It doesn’t represent profit that he’s made for them that they have in hand and wouldn’t otherwise.
I’ve been saying this since at least late August.
Guggenheim is a financial services/investment firm. They don’t have to pay Shohei for another 9 years. They could’ve made $120M additional ad revenue last year and then they could invest it for the next 9 years and watch it turn into $350M. If Shohei hasn’t already paid back his salary to the Dodgers in one year, it’ll be paid by year 2.
>The $700M gamble paid off big time for the Dodgers.
😂 Not really a gamble. Nez Balelo said he had a vision, Andrew Friedman bought into that vision, ownership bought into that vision, and here they are today, executing that vision and reaping the rewards.
Not to mention that Ohtani smartly and unselfishly deferred 97% of his contract. So the $460M-ish present day value of his contract is actually in the range-ish of what Mike Trout got in his mega extension, and is helping the team maintain payroll and roster flexibility.
Just smart baseball business and baseball operations decisions all around.
My low-key hope is with the increasing Japanese influence and presence in LA, the city eventually transforms into having a more Tokyo-like built environment
To think that Arte Moreno squandered away Ohtani’s SIX years of his prime. Six. Years.
Ohtani and the dodgers as a whole accomplished so much in a single year. If you told me the list of accomplishment they did last year was over a span of 4-5 years I would still be very happy.
No argument that Shohei’s deal will pay for itself in the end, but the math the writer presents to support the headline is just downright awful. Team valuation increasing by $700M does not equal realized revenue, unless you’re able to borrow against or convert equity to cash.
Id love to see a more specific analysis of revenue increases. This is generally very general. I have no doubt it will be profitable.
GOAT
Literally any number we paid to sign a unicorn was worth it. Profits aside, he helped us win another title. He’s been and will be worth the investment
This is clickbait lol. Nothing has been “paid back”
Worth every penny, from baseball and outside baseball. he brought a lot of advertising to dodgers and world series thropy.
The World Series drew around 12-15 million viewers in the United States but it also had another 12-15 million viewers from Japan. 10 percent of the population of Japan watched the World Series at 9 AM local time.
The Dodgers invested in a generational talent but also the Japanese market and Ohtani didn’t disappoint.
Dodgers only paid him 2 million best contact ever
Dodgers invested. Cohen and the Mets paid full price if not overpaid. We shall see.