{"id":14619,"date":"2017-12-12T10:11:24","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T15:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14619"},"modified":"2017-12-12T10:12:03","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T15:12:03","slug":"so-how-much-did-shohei-ohtani-just-cost-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14619","title":{"rendered":"So, how much did Shohei Ohtani just cost himself?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ohtani<\/a>

Ohtani signs with the … Angels? photo via theatlantic.com<\/p><\/div>\n

We now know that Japanese superstar\u00a0Shohei Ohtani<\/strong> has signed; he’s going to the Los Angeles Angels … or in other words, the other baseball team in Los Angeles.\u00a0 His selection of that team seems to have been driven by a desire to be on the West Coast, his apparent desire to be on an AL team to open up the DH opportunities in-between his starts … and his insane desire to leave literally tens of millions of dollars on the table.<\/p>\n

I was listening to a podcast where some guy was trying to argue that Ohtani was actually making a “good” business move by coming over now.\u00a0 I was flabbergasted.\u00a0 The guy’s main argument was that by coming over now, he gets to free agency two years earlier and thus can get more money then.\u00a0\u00a0But it gave zero credence to the fact that he’s going to be costing himself literally tens of millions of dollars by playing for MLB min salaries for three years.<\/p>\n

I thought i’d try to map out just how ridiculously bad his financial decision was to leave Japan now versus in two years, when he’d be 25 and would be an unrestricted FA.\u00a0\u00a0So, using some simple guesses and projections, here’s an attempt to discuss just how much money he’s leaving on the table.<\/p>\n

By coming over now, he is subjecting himself to the same rules as any other IFA; he gets the maximum bonus that the Angels<\/a> can offer ($2.315M after they acquired some bonus money just ahead of the signing).\u00a0 He’ll play for the MLB minimum the next three years.\u00a0 Then he’ll enter arbitration, with the caveat that any shenanigans in the contracts he may sign to buy out arb years will probably be voided by MLB.\u00a0 So we’ll use the records for 1st\/2nd\/3rd year eligible<\/a> arb players as benchmarks.<\/p>\n

By year:<\/p>\n