Notes: Shohei Ohtani, gambling, Camden lease

Shohei Ohtani’s deferrals, betting lines moving because of MLB employees, and chaos in Baltimore.

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Shohei Ohtani is a Dodger for the next 10 years, but he’s going to be paid by them for much longer than that. The $700 million contract—the largest in not just MLB’s history, but in North American pro sports history—that the two parties agreed to is going to be “mostly” deferred, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, which will significantly decrease the luxury tax hit his contract will have on the Dodgers each season. Teams are allowed to use deferrals like this, to create a “discount” on the luxury tax hit, and the Dodgers are apparently utilizing that idea to its fullest. Ohtani will still get paid a significant amount of cash each year, but he’ll also be collecting paychecks from the Dodgers well after he’s retired. Not a bad gig if you can get it.

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The Angels are trying to win, which is good, unless it’s bad(?)

The prospect hugging has gone a little too far if there’s whining about trading a top 50 one in order to give Shohei Ohtani a better chance at the postseason

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The Angels aren’t in possession of a Wild Card spot at present. They’re certainly not atop the AL West. They’re also playing through what very well might be the final season of Shohei Ohtani’s time with the organization, which doubles as the last time they have both Ohtani and Mike Trout together on the same roster. Another way to read that is that these last two-plus months of the season might be the last time the Angels have the last two players in the league who have had genuine Greatest of All Time labels attached to them, and accurately so, on the same roster.

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The question isn’t ‘Can the Angels keep Ohtani?’ but ‘Will they?’

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Buster Olney’s latest for ESPN (Insider subscription required) asks the question, “Can the Angels keep Shohei Ohtani?” with the implication from the second part of the headline “A payroll crisis looms in Los Angeles” being that the question is really “Can the Angels afford to keep Shohei Ohtani?” Yes. Yes they can. Alright, see you all next week.

OK fine let’s get into this.

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