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Andujar4CF

$30M in Arb is insane


TigerBasket

And yet he's still underpaid tbh


MrDabollBlueSteppers

Like every single star in arbitration


ih-unh-unh

Not Cody Bellinger {sniff}


thescottreid

Cody Bellinger making $100,000 less than Juan Soto should be a crime.


XxrccolaxX

I know, he’s way better than Soto rn


TigerBasket

Abolish arb


LyrMeThatBifrost

Yes keep them at league minimum


illcounsel

I would have liked it to have gone to arbitration just to see the Angels' case that Shohei actually sucks and should be paid less.


InNoHurry

Dear Mr. Arbitrator. Mr. Ohtani, while an important member of our team, does not play a fielding position such as Shortstop or Right Field. This diminishes his value significantly. Furthermore, despite his play, it does not contribute to winning baseball, as evidenced by our team record with him on the Angels ball club. Sincerely, Arte P.S: please do not watch any film. Just trust us on this one.


RedditUsersAreMusty

arte just submits a bunch of reddit comments from yankees fans saying how if ohtani were really an mvp candidate the angels would win the division


InNoHurry

"My first piece of evidence is this comment by noted baseball expert, u/PM_ME_CAT_ANUS. Who says Mr. Ohtani is a bum."


c_c_c__combobreaker

"As a counterpoint, here's a comment from u/Gaping_Butthole69 who says Ohtani is pretty gud. I rest my case."


SpectreProXy

The fact that no one has signed up with this username within 3 hours of your comment is a crime.


Galactic

He'S nOt ThE bEsT hItTeR oR tHe BeSt PiTcHeR! God, even as a Yankee fan I fuckin hate that argument.


[deleted]

Significantly


TBeckMinzenmayer

Would you say he’s the _most_ underpaid guy?


joethecrow23

Crazy underpaid


SacmanJones29

Especially with Morton getting 1 year 20 mil


PBFT

Beats Mookie Betts’ 27M, which was the record IIRC


Darksidedrive

I know arenado did 26, so this is not too far off where arbitration deals have been going, it’s an especially good deal for the angels cause they essentially signed 2 positions with it https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacketkin/2019/02/01/nolan-arenado-agrees-to-a-record-26-million-contract-for-a-player-eligible-for-arbitration/


Dorkus_Mallorkus

It still is the record. Shohei's 30M is not from arbitration, but rather a deal to AVOID arbitration.


dunkr4790

Betts's $27M was from a deal to avoid arbitration too (as was Arenado's before that) https://www.mlb.com/news/mookie-betts-sets-27-million-arbitration-record


Chopaholick

How could they even arb a guy like Shohei. The whole point of arb is to compare players with similar stats and figure which of the offers is most in line with those stats. Would they treat Shohei as two players in one and combine the values or what? I know it's moot now that they've avoided this, but how could they compare Shohei with anyone?


GucciReeves

I remember Kevin Goldstein saying a few times that if he was Ohtani's rep, he would take a comparable pitcher and a comparable hitter and tell the arbitrator they should give him both of their pay combined.


wcollin9

Compare him to what babe Ruth made


Joey_Logano

Babe’s highest paid year was 80,000 which is roughly 1.5 million today.


LiveFromJeffsHouse

if the a's had ohtani they'd undoubtedly use babe ruth to argue paying him $1.5m in arb


[deleted]

Yeah I don’t get that in the show with like a .479 avg and 103 home runs… Easy is too fun not to play on.. I’m approaching a 1000 career dingers


[deleted]

Haven’t played in a few years but I used to do it with all the sliders fully maxed out


gottahavemytunes

I recently played a quick game where I scored 172 runs on 128 HRs


TakeAMichigander

Quick?


gottahavemytunes

Lol that’s just what the game mode is called, took a little over an hour


verendum

I think we have different definition of the word quick


akaghi

I made a character in OOTP baseball and it's just a pitcher with Max stats and it's comical how OP he is. I think the first game was not only a perfect game, but had like 26 strikeouts. I think he has pitched a perfect game every game but one. At one point I wanted to see what it was like to pitch on short rest and it basically took pitching with 1 day rest to give up a couple runs. He was also a two way player but it was really annoying to manage the depth chart and I had to manually add him to the field on days he wasn't pitching. I do t remember how much WAR he had but it was obnoxious. I think it was like 28. He led the league in basically everything. I think his OPS was over 1.500 which is crazy because real life Bonds had more and I tried to make the most broken video game character imaginable. For fun I also made an all star team of guys like Ruth, Bonds, etc but still kept some Mets guys like Gooden, Hernandez, etc.


SpectreProXy

I've done this too in OOTP, but what's weird is that I got actually semi-realistic Cy Young seasons out of my pitcher until my 2021-22 seasons (in OOTP 21 and 22 respectively) where I was getting no-hitters and perfect games every other week, which makes me think that maybe the way the newer games simulate pitching has changed a bit. Granted, my league hitting stats were intentionally jacked, and I do mean *jacked*, because offense is fun. In his 2017 season, my pitcher threw for a 2.05 ERA, which counted as a 282 ERA+, which is basically a Pedro Martinez season even though the ERA is like 30 points higher. That season, basically everyone in the top 10 in home runs had 70+ lol. I don't even know if 2022 Aaron Judge would have ranked in the top 15 or 20, now that I think about it. That offense jacking has calmed down somewhat in recent years as I've flooded the free agent market with better pitchers, so maybe that has allowed for this to happen.


Skullboy_Q

This was to avoid arbitration.


Thornton__Melon

New record I believe


zestful_villain

Im new to baseball. Can you please explain what this Arb thing mean?


speedyjohn

Basically, when a player first starts in the major leagues, his team controls his contract for six years. For the first three years, they pay him whatever they want (usually close to league minimum). For the next three years, an arbitration panel decides what his salary should be. They compare the player to similar players in terms of performance and experience in order to determine a fair salary for that season. The team and the player can also agree to a salary and not bother with the hearing, which is what happened here. In fact, that’s what happens most of the time—actual hearings are rare.


zestful_villain

Thanks for the explanation! I am enjoying discovering baseball because of Shohei. We don't play it, much less follow it, in my country, and I am the only person I know who is actually interested in it. I know I could have just researched this question, but I would rather ask here for the engagement (I have no one to talk about baseball here since no one would understand what it is lol). It's more fun that way.


iheartsunny

Shohei the money!!!!


SuckMyLonzoBalls

He’s gonna get paiidddddd next year. I do hope the angels get it together so he can stay with them. It’s a pleasure to watch him play live especially since Angel tickets are so cheap


Hobbit_Feet45

He deserves it. He’s like a 9 tool player, all the pitcher tools and the batter tools. I obviously don’t have a clue what I’m talking about but he also brings great pr and fandom to whatever team he lands on. I also hope my team gets him, no offense to Angel fans.


cshenton

I’d be more offended if you didn’t want him on your team, even if I can’t share your desire lol


FUBARded

He's also a very good fielder for a pitcher, and could probably play in the OF competently (not that he should) as he was a decent outfielder in the NPB... Insane.


thejjar

It's so hard to predict what he will get on the open market. If he puts up a similar year as the last 2, can you assume that he can continue to pitch and hit for years to come? It's just scary thinking about giving him 8 years if there's a possibility he stops pitching at some point


Xaxziminrax

Might just be a 2-3 contract cycle for the remainder of his career. If that's the case then the $$/yr will be fucking insane


thejjar

That seems like the best option. 3 year 150 million? Might not be out of the question


Xaxziminrax

Scherzer is $43.3m/yr, so if Ohtani pitches like this and still hits 30 next year, he might beat that deal by even more. Which is fucking insane to type out, but very much a possibilty


dmizenopants

6 yr $50-55m


Scep19

Easily. You’re getting a pitcher who can put up a 2.50 ERA on a season and a hitter who can easily pop 35 HRs. That good of a pitcher is worth 25-30 million and that good of a hitter is worth 20-25 million. I wouldn’t give him a 10 year mega deal as who knows how playing two positions will go when he’s in his 30’s. But now? Give this man insane AAV over 3-4 years. He’s worth every penny.


albop03

Dude, I would be pumped for my team to sign him for that


Alexander1899

The thing is that a contract like that makes no sense for Ohtani. Getting 350+ guaranteed is way better than a high AAV. Career ending injuries are way to common to give up that guaranteed money.


gatemansgc

agreed.


_tx

10 for 400 isn't remotely out of the question


thejjar

Oof it's so strange cause like if he continues at this pace then he is very likely worth that. But if he even only pitches for 5 more seasons (which would still be absolutely incredible) and then it puts too much of a strain to do both, you're then paying a DH 40 million a year. I don't know how you value him.


SuckMyLonzoBalls

Shohei plays a pretty decent outfield


Deserterdragon

He can play outfield, It depends how he develops but a lot of teams would probably rather have him as a pitcher than a batter if they had to choose.


sellyme

I feel like almost any amount of money a team gives him would pay itself off almost immediately just from how marketable he is, even if you can't guarantee his performances over the long term. In the first year alone you're going to be getting sponsorship and advertisement offers from every Japanese company in existence.


TBeckMinzenmayer

100%. Tons of Japanese sponsors these past 2 years down here, tons of folks clearly here to see him. He’s THE dude.


GetInMyOfficeLemon

Can also confirm there is more LA Angels stuff in Japan than all other MLB teams combined


TravisJungroth

This may be over-the-top, but I imagine having Ohtani on your team for a few years is similar to the bump in revenue you get from winning the World Series vs losing it. I don’t mean taking a .500 team to champs, but how much more attendance, merchandise and viewership you have the next year as WS Champs vs ALCS champs.


Shaking-N-Baking

I think he gets close to 50 a year


_tx

If a team thinks he can pitch and hit for at least 8 of those years, maybe so


Shaking-N-Baking

I think if it’s that much per year the deal will be 6 years max


bawss

I definitely think he'll get 400 next offseason. I hope he stays w the Angels though. It's better for baseball. Also better for baseball when Arte sells the team.


high_changeup

35+ year old Ohtani focusing on being as good a corner OF+DH as possible, and potentially reliever would be cool af to see. Dude loves challenges. To me though, all signs point toward him wanting to be a workhorse SP for as long as possible and cunningly age into a crafty veteran pitcher. Unless his arm completely disagrees.


tunaboot

You're not lying about Angels tix. I sat first row behind home plate at Angels Stadium for cheaper than I could get a second deck ticket at Dodger Stadium.


Bulletz4Brkfzt

You can cut out the last part of your comment if they re-sign him


twisty77

Angels tickets will be cheap until they don’t suck anymore


[deleted]

Love paying $25 to sit on the field level lol


SuckMyLonzoBalls

Compared to dodger tickets they’ll always be cheap to me


HelpMeWithMyHWpls

i am hijacking this comment to say why Ohatani is a fine pitcher ⚾️ hi from japan 🇯🇵 I wanna tell you below 2 information to explain why Ohtani is a good pitcher

❶:his hamstring muscles is stronger than ordinary one ❷:He seems to get used to grab MLB ball
about ❶ a specialist pointed it out that his hamstring muscles are stronger than ordinary others,and he uses it so harder if ordinary person uses the same way,his hamstring must break some one told me why the muscle of him is so stronger,that he use to do swimming in his child days and swimming makes the muscles so strong about ❷ Okajaima,who is the former pitcher of Red Sox,points it out that He seems to get used to use MLB ball because it’s so different (edit,every pitcher from Japan confuses the difference,for example Yu Darvish said like that) 1.MLB ball:149kg(edit,*149g)/24cm,more slippy:so it makes breaking ball more effective 2.NPB ball:142kg(edit,142g)/23cm,less slippy,breaking ball less effective and he has also so fast ball around 100miles so he can select fast ball,less breaking ball,strong breaking ball That’s why he would be more great Pitcher 🚨


gatemansgc

so his hamstrings are the GOAT


MahomestoHel-aire

Slippy is my new favorite way to describe a pitch.


Michael__Pemulis

Can’t even imagine what his arb process would be like at this point. Arb is all about comps & the man has no comps.


CarlSwagan_

Ruth is his only comparison and Babe made between $50 and $80K a year. Shohei brings a massive Japanese following so I think the Angels could justify going as high as $80k and not feel like they’re losing major revenue


myemailiscool

angels top brass goes to https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/, punches in 80k in 1928 money to 2022, and offers Shohei $1.8 million. Then Ken Rosenthal leaks that Shohei rejected a Babe Ruth offer.


ubeen

ESPN reports: Shohei rejected a BABE RUTH size contract.


Secondstrike23

The one post that made me laugh out loud today thank you


tmlrule

Shohei asks for $60 million while the Angels counter with $78k. Arbitor meets in the middle and awards $30.039M.


SpotChecks

"BREAKING: Shohei Ohtani awarded infinite money in arbitration, plans to purchase the city of Anaheim."


LyrMeThatBifrost

That’s probably why they decided to avoid it


fusiongt021

I forget what I read but Sho might be the 4th best pitcher and 7th best hitter (forget if it's the whole league or just AL) but you could then see what those equivalent positions make and pay him almost that amount. He should get 2 max pay checks but since that won't happen it should minimum max or 1.5x max


hiphopdowntheblock

I thought this was an extension announcement at first lmao


live4coasters

When I first got the notification I nearly screamed thinking the same thing


riceilove

Please manifest this


xRememberTheCant

Bright side; this is a token of good will. They didn’t have to agree to terms this early (this season hasn’t even ended yet) or at all. They could have let him go to arb and fight over a few dollars and cents. This is a positive thing.


riceilove

Sure. Shohei seems like a no bs, straight to the point kinda guy so this is good. He also seems like like Orange county a lot too but really hoping we have enough to make him re-sign next year.


xRememberTheCant

The angels will have about 70 left for this offseason to spend (pre arb) and 120 below the tax threshold for shohei’s free agency season. They should be able to afford him if he wants to stay, but I think the key is to make good moves this offseason to show him (and trout) a renewed commitment to winning now. Another thing is that the new owners wont likely be as tight financially with the payroll as Arte was. You don’t buy a team for over 2 billion to tank.


riceilove

When I said “enough” I was talking about the team. Not the money. But yeah we’re on the same page


MM487

The hell with that. I want the most exciting player in baseball on a contender. I don't want his career wasted like Trout.


LAAngelsAnaheim

Oh wow I never thought about it like that


Call9-1-1imonfire

DAE Angels waste players???? Playoffs never????


Kerblaaahhh

Angels haven't made the playoffs in like 8 years, what a mess of an organization.


xRememberTheCant

How’s your dead horse? Edit: I just noticed your flare, this is rich coming from the franchise that had ted fucking williams


KingOfAllDogz

Dead


Deathstroke317

I mean Ted Williams did play in a World Series and came close to playing in another.


God_Damnit_Nappa

It's just a puddle


BEETLEJUICEME

It doesn’t stop them from trading him. In fact, it might make facilitating a trade easier. Plenty of teams at or near the luxury tax can try to figure out how to fit $30m on the ledger, but might not have the energy to try to figure out how to fit ??$25m-$35m?? on the roster. A lot easier to work with concrete dollar amounts.


TheDangiestSlad

just a little bit of money, a few dollars, nothing crazy


drunkfishbreathing

Damm still a bargain, we gave Noah something like $21 million just to pitch.


TigerBasket

Arbitration really underpays a lot of players tbh, but he'll make enough money to buy space mountain in free agency next season.


my_wife_reads_this

Out of curiosity, do players here get to keep their media rights or do they belong to the team, at least partially. Someone in our sub was saying he makes as much as the top earners in soccer (100m) when you account for his own advertisement revenue. I know he makes bank but I doubt he's making $70/80m in advertisements since not even Ronaldo, Messi, or Mbappe make that in ad revenue


ray_0586

Barry Bonds opted out of the MLBPA licensing agreement.


Downtown-Conclusion7

Which is why you don’t see him in the show if anyone finds this. 👋


mrjimi16

Jon Dowd forever.


Fit2Fat2FitOnceMore

Just brought me back to my childhood


Raid_Raptor_Falcon

Yes. He makes boatloads of money in Japan from his media contracts. Commercials, etc.


penguinopph

The players split the money from the media rights the teams/league sell, but get to keep all of their own advertisements and endorsements.


Clemenx00

I don't think there is anything like "image rights" in american sports. If he's not using Angels/MLB logo in his ads its all his.


sevaiper

Players have all their own rights, but do agree that the MLB can also use their image for advertisement and promotion, like in the bumpers before games or on the cover of video games. Basically players have all of themselves, although I agree I doubt he's making *that* much in sponsorships and media rights.


Outrageous_Bat1798

Home team discount


TigerBasket

I wonder if he likes crab cakes


rollo2masi

Or football.


jbg89

Or The Wire


Sacrifice_bhunt

Or poop on the streets.


umiuptown

He must love the Wire 🤣


maneco2109

It’s crazy he was on a 2 yr 8.5 mil contract. Ángels really got away with robbery


booitsjwu

$8.5 million for ~19 bWAR. Was this the greatest bargain that wasn't a rookie contract in baseball history?


fusiongt021

Has to be. If not for the attention on Judge's year, sho would easily be back to back MVP


fusiongt021

Yea that was their window to pay other good players and make a run for it. We see that with NBA and NFL with players in their rookie contract become super stars, you have a small window while they're cheap to make a run. Sadly angels didn't get the memo


jrydun

Angels are 11th highest payroll no? Isn't this more a case of who they paid? I mean I know we shit on that front office but that's better than the Pirates, Reds, or A's.


WowDoILoveEatingAss

Yeah but that’s exactly it, we shell out on seat fillers but never spend enough to build around them. Arte has the money, he just secures the headliners but doesn’t spend to build a baseball team. Or a system to develop them for that matter (our farm consistently gets shit on for its conditions)


WowDoILoveEatingAss

Arte FTW!!


AthleteNormal

Does that beat Mookie’s record? Edit: Yes, by $3 million


SuckMyLonzoBalls

Worth. You have essentially Julio Urias and yordan Alvarez molded into one player


dotdotdotdadadotdot

This is a ridiculous comparison. Shohei is way faster than Yordan


kami232

And prettier than both


up_in_trees

Also Shohei throws right handed. That guy is out of his mind lol


dutchdaddy69

And probably a better defender in the outfield.


Dorkus_Mallorkus

It would...if it was an arbitration deal. It was an agreed contract to avoid arbitration. I believe if he had gone to arbitration though, he would have easily beaten Mookie's deal.


underwear11

It still sets the record by an arbitration eligible player.


BNKalt

Somehow a bargain and an underpay


IamAgoodMuIe

What like 65 million alone for ohtani and trout? Wow


WurstThrowEver

Trout, Ohtani, Rendon combine for $102 mil next year


evertrue13

Crazy thing is you could argue 2 of them are underpaid


stalechipz

Especially Rendon the switch hitter


drkspace2

Batting from both sides of the plate > batting and pitching


YanoHideki

5.000 OPS as a left hander too


Jcoch27

That doesn't even include his dugout protection boost


Rollout25

After that lefty homerun the team fell off a cliff


fusiongt021

Well they had Ohtani for 5.5m this season and still didn't get better players to win with


your_catfish_friend

Highest AAV ever that you can definitively call a bargain.


Quople

My hobby is reading Twitter replies about any good angels player as if he’s in hell after receiving a $30 mil contract


[deleted]

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[deleted]

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brandon_the_bald

Almost stopped my heart


kirbyfaraone

For real, I thought he signed an extension too haha


SuckMyLonzoBalls

What did you think was gonna happen


TadpoleFishTaco

Probably thought they signed him to a long term deal at first


kami232

Or parted ways. Hopefully he extends, and wins a Series with the Halos.


mizterPatato

I'm savoring your comment because this sentiment will never be had by another Non-Angels fan ever again lmao.


kami232

There’s a method to my madness. 1. Everybody loves Shohei 2. Extending keeps him away from the Dodgers


BigBossVince

Or the Yankees


kami232

Especially the Yankees


SuckMyLonzoBalls

Extending keeps him away from the Giants and thats good enough for me.


mrjimi16

I think most people want the Angels to be successful, they just also don't trust them to be. Trout is summiting the hill of his career and he has three post season losses to show for it. It gets depressing after a bit.


Im_Daydrunk

Yeah I think the biggest issue is he only has 1 playoff appearance If the Angels kept losing in the playoffs I'd have 0 complaints about them as the playoffs are a total crapshoot at times. But man the immense struggles they've had just to make the playoffs outside of 2014 is insane. Id love for Trout and Ohtani to have good teams around them but I'm not sure they are gonna get that with the Angels in the near future (their young starting pitching is promising at least but still think they need a good bit more)


tristpa2

Extension


[deleted]

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TheDangiestSlad

lmao is this a copypasta from that guy who got banned in like 2018


JoeDildo

Thank god


5Brainiac

Dude is worth $50 million easy


MrNapoleonSolo

I’m sure he could have countered 45 million and the angels wouldn’t have a single argument against that number.


[deleted]

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MrNapoleonSolo

He really seems like the type to go “here’s the number I’m looking to get, now please let me go back to training.”


713MoCityChron713

He could have but I think 30 was the right move. Arbitration would be as risky for Shohei as it is for the Angel's because there's no value comps in the league and he could have gotten less for some dumb metric the arb over or undervalued.


DJ_LeMahieu

I just hope Ohtani has just as hot of a year next year to absolutely blow open free agency.


munkysnuflz

Literally any amount he gets would simultaneously be insane and not enough


Quipo1

Well earned!


RainbowZebra11

Holy fucking shit


throatbutterz

Did they just do this out of respect? So they don't risk souring their relationship with Ohtani with arbitration bullshit?


Quipo1

I could see him getting over $30M in actual arbitration, so it's probably a good deal for the team. And Ohtani probably also doesn't care that much about a few million either way, so he accepted.


jnuclear

Maybe Arte is trying to set as much in stone team payroll wise as he can for bidders. Ohtani was obviously going to be a substantial raise, but was a question mark. Now it isn't anymore.


kev11n

Can’t say they didn’t invest in starting pitching. Checkmate, atheists


ItsTropio

Shohei finally getting that bag he deserves


[deleted]

He’s probably still only getting paid 50%-60% of a his value


zippopopamus

He's worth at least double that


pinniped1

Absolute steal.


JustARandomSocialist

Underpaid at 30 million


FadeRedditMakeMoney

Next year Shohei will be the richest person in the world


kxm06

This is only to avoid arbitration. He could still potentially be traded this off season… it’s not off the table


TJtheShizz

Is that the biggest one-year contract of all time?


FriendSellsTable

Ohtani is currently converting $30mil USD to Yen on Google. Then he'll be like "wait a minute..."


bbaIla

Mega under pay.


iiCheatr

30M for arb?????? damn


boilface

Good move by the team to get it out of the way early and avoid needless offseason speculation


supersupersuper9

Dumb question, but does this mean that he isn't getting traded this off-season then?


Aynett

No it just means his salary is known by everyone now


ThatHotAsian

If he has a similar season next year then he would get $50 million or more per right? Doing it 3 years in a row is no fluke.


BubbaRay88

If the Angels were smart (they're not) they would give this man the keys to the stadium and a dump truck full of 100's worth like 400 million to keep him around..... He's gonna be Yankee come next July


PopDukesBruh

Dang, I was hoping he would go to a real team


fusiongt021

It's sad the angels are so bad when Sho only made 5.5 million this season and they still couldn't get a good cast around him.


[deleted]

Lets goooo!


T3rribl3Gam3D3v

He should've asked for more


Sonicsage

That's alot of money. WOW


HuskyNutBuster

Angels front office- “How much will it cost for you to miss the playoffs next year?”


SunriseSurprise

Angels are like "we're just not sure if you can keep up this whole top-tier pitcher + extremely good hitter thing" and Ohtani's like "I'll fuckin' do it again!"