The baseball world is flipped upside down with recent superstar two-way player, Shohei Ohtani, signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Originally, Ohtani signed a 10 year, $700 million fully guaranteed contract. The Japanese Ace has been phenomenal on the mound and on the plate. While on the Angels, Ohtani has quickly made a name for himself as one of the best players in baseball.
For the Angels last year, Ohtani played 135 games, batting .304, piling up 151 hits, 95 RBI, 91 BB, and 44 HRs. His OPS was 1.066, first in the league. On the mound, Ohtani was even more dominant until he had to stop pitching due to hurting his elbow. He piled up 167 strikeouts, on a 10-5 winning percentage. Ohtani also had a 3.14 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, and allowing 55 walks. He only allowed 88 hits and 50 runs. Needless to say, Ohtani has made a name for himself as one of the best two-way players in all of baseball.
Now let’s get into his contract. Ohtani is set to make a ton of money, as expected.
But recently Ohtani has deferred his contract into $680 million. What does this mean exactly?
This is a unique option Ohtani has chosen, meaning he will earn just $2 million a year for the next 10 years. After that, he will receive $68 million a year between 2034-2043. This has been done before, but nothing to this extent. The Dodgers are already one of the best teams in baseball, led by super stars Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts, but adding Shohei into the lineup will only exemplify their success.
Last year, the Dodgers went 100-62. 
Unfortunately, the Dodgers lost to the Diamondbacks in the playoff, but they have had success in the past. The last time the Dodgers won the World Series was 2019, but other then that, they have had a bit of a stigma choking in the playoffs.
The Dodgers are also looking into signing Japanese pitching superstar Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He is regarded as one of the best pitchers in the market right now, and is being highly sought after.
Teams are scrambling for good pitchers, due to the new pitch clock rules speeding up pitchers. This had led to pitchers being less dominant this year then in past, so the really good pitchers are becoming more rare. If the Dodgers sign Yamamoto, it would be very upsetting, as the Dodgers are already very good, and they don’t need any more help. It’s the idea of the rich get richer.
The Dodgers currently have the best odds to win the World Series, and for good reason. There is no salary cap in MLB, which allows for big market teams to sign whoever they please. It is rather unfortunate, as smaller teams such as the Rockies will never be able to be as good because they are not as big. Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani’s contracts combined are more expensive than some teams, showing how no salary cap affects the league. 
