Don't be bluffed by the figure of 700 million in 10 years, Shohei Ohtani's contract is actually very cheap?

Written by丨A version

Editor丨Feng Xiao

Six days after the signing news shocked the world, Shohei Ohtani officially appeared at the press conference of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Gun Sprint in front of visiting media and donned Dodge's signature blue baseball cap.

It's natural for anyone who sees this to imagine the hat as a crown of milestones in professional sports. After all, the salary level of 10 billion yuan is unprecedented. Even though it's been a few moments since the news happened, looking back at the numbers is still heart-pounding, unbelievable, and even appalling. And what is more symbolic about this scene is that Shohei Ohtani's signing, which involves the rather puzzling issue of "delayed payment", is also related to a "hat" of MLB.

In order to clarify this problem, we might as well review how horrible this paper contract really is.

First of all, it surpasses Barcelona's 2017 contract with Lionel Messi, which signed a contract of 674 million, becoming the first contract in the history of professional sports.

● This contract also undoubtedly allowed him to surpass his former Angels teammate Mike Trout and become the No. 1 total salary and No. 1 average salary in MLB history. Previously, Trout's 12-year 426.5 million had greatly surpassed his predecessors, and he never thought that he would be surpassed in five years, and the total salary of Shohei Ohtani's contract directly increased the total salary of Trout's contract by 1.64 times.

● The total salary of the five teams in the MLB Mid-Division of the MLB American League last season was only 638.8 million, which is less than the total salary of Ohtani's new contract.

● The average salary of 70 million is more than the projected total salary of the eight MLB teams next season.

● As strong as NBA superstar LeBron James, the total salary of his career is only 530 million, which is lower than the total salary of Ohtani's new contract.

● If $700 million were converted into 100 yuan bills, the pile would weigh 7.72 tons.

The NFL and NBA contracts are generally four or five years, so why did the Dodgers give Ohtani a ten-year contract?

In fact, this 10-year contract is not unique in the MLB world, with the Yankees giving Jancarol Stanton a 13-year contract in 2015, the Angels to Trout on a 12-year contract in 2019, the Phillies giving Bryce Harper a 13-year contract, and the Padres giving Fernando Tatis Jr. a 14-year contract in 2021. In 2023, MLB teams have given away six contracts with a contract life of at least ten years. Including Ohtani's new contracts, MLB now has 15 contracts with at least 10 years of tenure, and 26 contracts over eight years. As an MLB star, the contract extension is not eight years and ten years, and he is embarrassed to say hello when he goes out.

Ohtani's ten-year contract and his choice of "deferred payment" to keep the championship window for the Dodgers means that by the time he is in his forties, the Dodgers will have to pay him more than 60 million salaries a year, and the same is true for other teams.

In fact, this is inextricably linked to MLB's unique salary structure. When we watch NBA and NFL games, we often hear a word – "salary cap". The NFL uses a "hard salary cap", the NBA has two salary lines, "hard cap" and "soft cap", while MLB only has a "soft salary cap", the professional term is Competitive Balance Tax (Competitive Balance Tax), which is a rule restriction made by the major leagues in order to restrict the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox and other wealthy people from spending money to net stars, but for these "evil empire" teams, as long as they can dig up their favorite superstars to help the team improve their combat power, Maintaining the championship window and paying some luxury tax is not a big deal.

But none of the MLB teams are wronged, and although the total salary looks scary at first glance, as long as the tenure is long enough, the average salary is still an acceptable range. For example, Tatis Jr.'s contract is 14 years long but his average salary is just over $24 million, and Harper's contract is 13 years but his average salary is only $25 million, ranking 32nd and 25th in the major leagues, respectively.

Little Tatis

In addition, advanced diet, training and athletic science have led major league insiders to believe that the prime of professional players will extend to 35 to 40 years old, and that these players who are in the early stages of their prime, will still be in shape after more than a decade, and that the longer contracts will not make the team unjust.

However, Ohtani's contract seems to be fundamentally different from other stars, it is not only a high total amount and a long life, but the average salary of 70 million is far beyond people's imagination and cognition, why can he only sign a record contract?

To put it another way, Shohei Ohtani is a second-rate superstar who "shoots and repairs", and in two MVP seasons, his hitting is at the peak and his pitching is also at the top level, which means that bringing him in is equivalent to bringing in two superstars at once, one gets two salaries, and 70 million doesn't seem too much, right?

In addition, the NFL court sees news that quarterbacks break all-time salary records every offseason, and the NBA's Celtics even give Jaylen Brown and his ilk a five-year, 304 million super contract extension, it seems that the contract tide of professional sports leagues is an irreversible trend.

With a five-year, $304 million extension, Brown signed the NBA's biggest contract to date

According to Forbes, MLB's total revenue in 2022 will reach a record $10.8 billion, TV broadcast fees alone will be as high as $2.3 billion, and the 30 major league teams can get a piece of the pie. As mentioned earlier, in 2023, each team will give away six contracts with a contract period of at least ten years, with a total salary of 1.689 billion. Shohei Ohtani's average salary of 70 million seems scary, and perhaps in just three years, similar big contracts will emerge one after another.

In addition, Shohei Ohtani's huge commercial value is also the reason why Dodge is willing to spend a lot of money. According to calculations by Katsuhiro Miyamoto, professor emeritus at Kansai University in Japan, Shohei Ohtani brought in about $45 million in ticket revenue for the Angels in the 2022 season, in addition to $7.26 million in peripheral revenue. In 2023, he led the Japanese team to regain the World Baseball Classic championship, won the MVP himself, and then won the major league MVP for the second time in his career, and Ohtani's commercial value was pushed to the top. As soon as Otani signed a contract with the Dodgers, his jersey sales instantly surpassed Messi and Ronaldo in 48 hours, and topped the jersey sales list.

In 2021, Shohei Ohtani became the MVP, causing a "big ancient fever" in Japan

According to Forbes data, the New York Yankees will have a team market value of 7.1 billion in 2023, leading the major leagues, while the Dodgers will have 4.8 billion, the second in the major leagues. By signing the greatest baseball player in the world, the Dodgers will not only be able to continue to challenge for championships for years to come, but also bring huge commercial value, and perhaps in the near future, they will surpass the Yankees as the most valuable team in the major leagues.

Finally, we all know that the NFL is undoubtedly the first professional sports league in the United States, and baseball, as the "national sport of the United States", MLB has a unique position in the hearts of the American people, which makes them sit firmly in the second place in the North American professional sports league for many years. However, due to the success of the NBA's internationalization and commercial operation, it seems that there is a momentum to surpass MLB to become the second, but the birth of Shohei Ohtani, the birth of the largest contract in the history of professional sports, MLB even has the signs of shaping Shohei Ohtani into the greatest professional athlete in history, in any case, this super signing will gain different attention, redefine the MLB league, and push the more than 100-year-old major league to a new peak.