The biggest story in baseball in 2023 will be about the contract and team status of a player after the season ends- and perhaps even in-season if there’s a trade.
Shohei Ohtani is a free agent after the 2023 Major League Baseball season, and he’s likely to get a record-breaking contract. After all, he’s essentially two superstars in one, as an elite starting pitcher and elite hitter. And he’ll be under 30 (he turns 29 on July 5) entering the 2024 season.
It’s been assumed that Ohtani will leave a Los Angeles Angels team that — despite having names like Ohtani, Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and Anthony Rendon over the years — last had a season of .500 or better in 2015 (and last won a playoff series in 2009). Ohtani will get the opportunity to play wherever he wants and get all of the dollars he wants, so choosing to remain with the Angels would seem unlikely on the surface.
However, Angels owner Arte Moreno is optimistic about keeping Ohtani, or at least that’s how he’s presenting it to the media.
During the owners meetings, Moreno told Jon Heyman of the New York Post that he’d “like to keep Ohtani.”
“I’d like to keep Ohtani,” Moreno told The Post at the MLB owners meetings here. “He’s one of a kind, He’s a great person. He’s obviously one of the most popular baseball players in the world, and he’s an international star. He’s a great teammate. He works hard. He’s a funny guy, and he has a really good rapport with fans.”
“He fits in well with what we do,” Moreno said, while praising Ohtani’s desire to play every day. “We’re in the entertainment business. We want fans to be able to come to the ballpark and have a great experience.”
Moreno added, “I’d like to say we have as good a chance (to sign Ohtani) as [any organization].”
Ohtani is likely to get a contract well north of $400 million, and potentially even in the neighborhood of $500 million. And some organization will be glad to pay up, such as New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, who’s already made his Ohtani interest clear– and who’s already stunned the world with his spending habits over the several months. Heyman reports, “One rival noted that no matter how willing the Angels are ‘if [Mets owner] Steve Cohen writes the check, it doesn’t matter.'”
Even still, Moreno claims that the Angels should not be ruled “out of the question” to spend what it takes for Ohtani.
“Economically we’re usually in the top 10, so it’s not out of the question,” Moreno said, hopefully.
Ohtani was rumored to be in trade talks last July, and he will certainly be brought up constantly by the baseball world in trade rumors until the 2023 in-season deadline. Here’s what Moreno said about the Angels not trading Ohtani (yet):
“It’s true we could have traded him. But how do you get [back] a major league starting pitcher and Cy Young candidate, and obviously an MVP type?” Moreno said. “How do you trade for that? You can’t.”
If the Angels are once again out of the race come the summer, they’ll have to consider trade offers for Ohtani. And if they don’t, they’d better to prepared to blow him away with a contract offer and sales pitch next winter. One rival executive told Heyman that the chances of the Angels signing Ohtani to an extension before free agency will be “impossible.”