Showtime Baseball Style
January 7, 2024
Glory lies in the attempt to reach one’s goal and not in reaching it. Mahatma Gandhi
1. Introduction
A literal ton of articles have discussed pitcher and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani’s move from the Los Angeles Angels of the American League [AL] to the Los Angeles Dodgers of the National League [NL]. This will be yet another one. However, almost a month has passed since he signed on December 11, 2023, and that may be enough time to gain a little perspective. To start, this article will discuss the Ohtani transaction from the viewpoint of the Dodgers themselves. Next, the article will discuss what the financial aspects of Ohtani’s new contract reveal about him. Finally, the article will speculate on the future implications of the Dodgers’ acquisition of Ohtani, who is currently the best Baseball player in the world . Hopefully, this article will give the reader a fresh viewpoint. Regardless, much of this article will still probably just being going over the same ground that so many other articles have already covered. But angry people need to vent, happy people need to laugh, and most Baseball fans need to talk about Shohei Ohtani.
2. The Los Angeles Dodgers trample the Angels
One aspect of the LA Dodgers’ signing of Shohei Ohtani that has not really been discussed is the ramifications on the Los Angeles Baseball economy. The Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels share the same metropolitan area and fight each other for market share. Every potential Dodger fan is also a potential Angel fan. While having a winning team is surely the single most important factor in a team’s portion of their local Baseball market chunk, the next most important factor is probably having superstar players that fans can identify with, root for, and most importantly buy branded merchandise from the teams that bears the player’s names. As far as simply winning goes, the Dodgers are currently wildly successful [13 straight winning seasons lasting from 2011 to 2023 with no end in sight]. The Angels? Not so much. But the lackluster Angels have had two superstars that the Dodgers could not match, Ohtani and Mike Trout. It has been apparent for several years [since 2019, at least] that the Dodgers have been thinking about, coveting, and planning to sign Ohtani when he became a free agent after the 2023 season. Literally, the Dodgers have been salivating over getting a share of the merchandising and marketing bonanza if they could sign Ohtani. Hopefully, ten years from now, some enterprising journalist or financial analyst will write an interesting piece on just how the Dodgers were able to capitalize on the Ohtani brand.
During this time, every Dodger personnel move [free agent decisions, luxury tax considerations, and rookie usage] has been evaluated as possibly being related to their eventual acquisition of Ohtani. Of course, this could have just been normal sportswriter hyperventilation. But good sportswriters are usually tied into the zeitgeist of the teams that they cover. There was so much smoke about the Dodgers’ desire to sign Shohei from the Dodger writers that there had to be a raging fire somewhere in the Dodger organization. But it can’t be emphasized enough that the Dodgers knew that signing Ohtani would also be a metaphorical stake into the LA Angels’ heart. Like Van Helsing hunting Dracula, the Dodgers knew how they wanted their pursuit of Ohtani to end [with a stick through the Angels’ heart]. The LA Dodgers also appear to be aware that Major League Baseball [MLB] is evolving into 3 different classes of teams: 1) some clubs that are perennial winners, 2) other clubs that alternate between winning and losing cycles, and 3) a few clubs that are the perennial losers. In this probable future, the perennial losers will grow the superstars for the perennial winners to eventually acquire.* It is in the LA Dodger’s best interest for the LA Angels never to be a perennial winner. By taking Shohei Ohtani away from them, the Dodgers took a large step towards making the Angels a permanent second class citizen in their own home city.
*If the Players Union can get the Major League service time requirement down from six years to five or less years, this process will be accelerated.
3. The Pacific Rim of Baseball
Of course. the Dodgers were reportedly interested in signing Shohei Ohtani both when he signed in 2013 with the Nippon Ham Fighters of the Japanese Pacific League [JPL]; and in 2018 with the Los Angeles Angels of the AL. But each time, Ohtani made his decision to sign on which team would allow him to pursue his double duty dreams [pitching and hitting]. To do that, Ohtani needed to a team that could use a designated hitter [DH]. Since the National League did not adopt the designated hitter rule until 2022, the Dodgers were out of luck both times. But it was apparent for years that the DH was coming to the NL. Major League Baseball [MLB] was just holding the implementation of it hostage as a negotiating chip against the Players Union. After the Covid pandemic forced the NL to temporarily adopt the DH in 2020, the permanent adoption of the DH rule by the NL was inevitable. When it finally happened, the Dodgers’ dreams of acquiring Ohtani actually became possible. But it also became possible for the LA Dodgers to realize dreams that went back before Ohtani was even born. In the 1960s and 1970s, the two greatest untapped resources of Baseball talent in the world by MLB were Cuba and Japan. Omar Linares and Sadaharu Oh, two the greatest players of all time, played out their careers without ever appearing in the MLB. The Dodgers, who traveled often to Japan to played series against teams there, were well aware of the quality of the Japanese Major Leagues.
Of course, the Dodgers had been heavily recruiting Latin players since the 1950s. But in 1980, Dodger owner Peter O’Malley also committed his team to heavily recruiting players from the Pacific Rim [Japan, Korea, Taiwan]. In many ways, the Pacific Rim players were even more important to the Dodgers than low-cost Latin talent [except perhaps players of Mexican origin like Fernando Valenzuela]. The Dodgers are basically a Pacific Rim team themselves [along with the Angels, Padres, Giants, Mariners, and the sad A’s until they move to Vegas]. The Los Angeles metropolitan area has the largest Asian population of any United States city [about 1.5 million in 2020] and largest population of Japanese origin in the continental United States [about 180 thousand].* It was obvious that a Baseball player of Asian origin would be a perfect fit for the Dodgers. O’Malley’s attempts to procure players from the Pacific Rim eventually bore fruit. In 1994, the LA Dodgers signed Chan Ho Park, the first Korean star player in the MLB. Then, in 1995, they also signed Hideo Nomo, the first true Japanese star player. The Dodgers were committed to cornering the market for Pacific Rim players and had made a great start. They had set themselves up to be the first choice for future Asian Pacific Rim players. By location and fan base and ownership, the advantage was all theirs. But then the Dodgers threw it all away.
*San Francisco is second with 66 thousand, New York third with 56, and Seattle fourth with 53. The Honolulu, Hawaii, metropolitan area has reportedly about 200 thousand or so residents of Japanese origin.
4. The Dark Days of Dodger Baseball from 1998 to 2012
In 1998, Dodger Owner Peter O’Malley sold the LA Dodgers team to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. O’Malley stated that he was selling because he was worried about Estate Taxes [at present in 2024, he is still reportedly alive and no Estate Taxes have come due]. O’Malley really sold the Dodgers in a fit of petulance. He was upset by the continuing ugliness between the Owners and Players after the Player’s strike in 1994 and 1995 [which was pretty much completely the Owners’ fault for trying to break the Players Union]. The LA Dodger family mystique that O’Malley liked to cultivate had gone pretty sour for him. Simply as a business decision, Peter O’Malley’s sale of the team was remarkably foolish [like most such judgments made emotionally]. Because of wounded pride or hurt feelings, O’Malley sold away an asset that any astute businessman would have died to hold onto. In 2012, when the Dodgers once again went up for sale, O’Malley would try to buy the team back. But he did not have the funds any more to buy it just by himself. The consortium that he put together was quickly outbid. O’Malley’s foolishness cost his family several billion dollars. But even more importantly, O’Malley’s ill-considered decision to sell the Dodgers in 1998 also threw away all of his own good work mining the Pacific Rim for talent.
From 1998 to 2004, the LA Dodgers were owned by the News Corporation.* Murdoch’s company bought the team as part of a larger struggle with TBS [Turner Broadcasting System] for Baseball content. In 2004, the LA Dodgers were sold by News Corp to con-artist and grifter named Frank McCourt who was approved by Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig himself. There is a very interesting article to be written about some of Selig’s strange choices for his fellow owners during his tenure, but this is not it. McCourt bought the LA Dodgers with MLB credit, proceeded to squeeze the franchise for every cent, and then cashed out for an undeserved fortune in 2012 (while under extreme pressure from Selig to sell). Both the News Corporation and Frank McCourt had one thing in common. Neither had any long-range vision for the team. While they owned the club from 1998 to 2012, the Dodgers missed out on the cream of the crop of the first great wave of Baseball talent coming over from the Japanese Major Leagues (Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Masahiro Tanaka, et al). By 2012, when the Guggenheim Group purchased the LA Dodgers from McCourt, the team’s once great advantage in signing Pacific Rim talent had evaporated. Although some of their decisions have not been stellar (Trevor Bauer), the overall record of the franchise under the Guggenheim stewardship speaks for itself. No one has been accusing the Guggenheimers of lack of vision. Now, their signing of the Japanese version of Babe Ruth may be just the capstone of their management. With it, the Guggenheimers have taken a giant step towards cementing the Los Angeles Dodgers’ status as perennial winners and re-established the Dodgers as the primary destination for Pacific Rim players.
*Just like O’Malley, News Corp would sell the LA Dodgers right before Baseball franchise values exploded upwards. Rupert Murdoch may know the newspaper business but his acumen in the business of Baseball was non-existent.
5. The Contract of Shohei Ohtani
In many ways, Shohei Ohtani’s new contract with the Dodgers is unlike any other sports contract ever signed. The 2 million dollars a year from 2024 to 2033 and then 68 million dollars a year from 2034 to 2043 is as unique as Ohtani himself. Even more unique is that it became obvious that Ohtani and his representatives designed the contract themselves and then presented it to the teams that Ohtani was actually considering [the LA Dodgers and Angels plus the San Francisco Giants].* MLB calculated this odd contract, for luxury tax purposes, as exactly 46 million dollars a year for 10 years in current value. Interestingly, the Players Union calculated it as 43.5 million a year in current value. Basically, Ohtani and his reps seemed to have just decided to top the highest average annual pay ever [43 and a third million dollars a year for 2 years to Justin Verlander and 3 years to Max Scherzer] and then pair that with the length of contract [10 years or more] usually given to drive that average annual amount down. Not coincidentally, the contract also topped, by either the MLB or the Player Union calculations, the largest amount of total dollars ever of any MLB contract previously given out [to Ohtani’s former teammate Mike Trout for 426.5 million over 12 years]. Most importantly, all the deferrals until 2034 to 2043 in Ohtani’s contract will help free up the Dodgers to spend more in an attempt to absolutely dominate during his actual playing career with the Dodgers from 2024 to 2033. Ohtani claimed that winning was, by far, the most important thing and then, incredibly, structured his contract to back up those words to the hilt. You have to respect that.
*Actual Contract Math: 2 million from 2024-2033 not discounted; 68 million deferred from 2034-2043 with a discount rate of 4.43% which equals a present day annual value of $44,081,476.50 per year. Adding back the 2 million gives a contract of $46,081,476.50 per year for 10 years with a Total Contract Value of $460,814,764.97 dollars.
Another prime consideration in Ohtani’s strange contract seems to have been the California State Income Tax, currently the very highest in the United States at 13.3% for all income over one million dollars a year [and heading to 14.3% in 2024]. Under a US Federal Statue that prohibits States from taxing deferred payments if they last for at least 10 years and the recipient no longer lives in the State, Ohtani and his reps crafted a contract that will allow him to possibly collect those 68 million dollars a year from 2034 to 2043 and also not have to pay a single dime of that exorbitant California State Income Tax (provided he does not live in CA during that time). If he moves to a some place like Florida or Texas with no State Income Tax at all during those years, it will be the same as if Ohtani had stashed his 46-million-dollar paycheck in a tax-free fund that returns 13 to 14 percent. This is one hell of a return in a world where financial analysts will tell you that a 10 percent annual return is fantastic. Interestingly, no one has yet weighed in on whether Japan itself would tax the 2034-2043 deferred payments if Ohtani returns to his Homeland. If he wanted to finish his Baseball career in Japan after the Dodger contract runs out after the 2033 season, would it cost Shohei Ohtani any money? Someone needs to look at the Japanese Income Tax Code. But, for some reason, I believe the answer is: “No.” If anything, Shohei Ohtani has consistently shown that his preparation is completely on point.
*Sportswriters have indicated that Toronto might have also been given a chance to consider Ohtani’s terms. But that seems as unlikely as the false ‘Ohtani plane ride to Toronto to sign’ story.
6. The Tao of Shohei Ohtani
What does all this say about Shohei Ohtani? Nothing that is not already known. He is intelligent, smart, driven and extremely methodical. He seems to put in the work to not only to develop his talent, but also to structure his life. Before he even signed with the Dodgers, it was hypothesized that Ohtani preferred to stay on the West Coast because it would keep him closest to his Homeland.* Considering that he almost surely only gave Pacific Rim teams a chance to match the LA Dodger contract, this was almost certainly true. After his LA Dodger contract was signed, it was reported that Ohtani could take just 2 million dollars a year while deferring 68 million annually because he already makes 40 to 50 million dollars a year in endorsements. If he truly makes that much in endorsements (or even one half of that), Ohtani had an even greater reason to stay in Los Angeles, the media capital of the United States [if not the World]. How much more in endorsements will Ohtani make if he is the member of a Los Angeles Dodgers Super Team that makes annual play-off appearances? How much more if they win multiple World Championships? Every aspect of Shohei Ohtani’s career has been methodically planned out. It is apparent that he took all this into consideration too. For years, it has been reported that Ohtani would eventually sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was inevitable because it made too much sense. But, in the real world, things that simply make too much sense often do not come to pass (such as Bryce Harper to the Yankees). The Tao of Shohei Ohtani seems to be a Baseball life that makes perfect sense.
*Los Angeles is 5477 miles away from Tokyo, Japan. Both San Francisco and Oakland [5138 miles] are closer, but Seattle [4782 miles] is actually the closest. San Diego is even further away [5582 miles].
But the most important takeaway from Shohei Ohtani’s contract negotiations is that the man must have an almost unshakeable belief in himself. His belief in himself is evidently so strong that money seems to have never his primary motivation. Ohtani seems to believes that, if he simply pours his heart & soul into performing on the field, the money will follow. When he signed his first Baseball contract in Japan, Ohtani’s firm belief that he could be a double duty player, both hitting and pitching, was essential to his choice of a team. When Ohtani came to the United States, he once again chose the team that would allow him to be a double duty player. By coming over early, Ohtani forfeited the chance to make millions from the established posting system and had to accept the MLB minimum salary. Basically, Ohtani then used his initial team in the MLB as an apprenticeship. Once he had conclusively proved that he could be a two way superstar, Ohtani moved on. And now he has reached Baseball Nirvana. The best player in the world is playing for an organization that will surround him with players that can help him to repeatedly get to the greatest Baseball stage of all, the MLB World Series. If there is a God in heaven and he or she loves Baseball, this will all work out for Ohtani. He must believe that it will work out because everything has always worked out before. Possibly the only thing that could derail this Ohtani dream is if his team does not hold up it’s end of the bargain by not trying to surround Shohei with the teammates that he needs. The LA Angels, to their credit, did try to do this. They simply failed. It is already becoming apparent that the LA Dodgers will not fail. In fact, it is very likely that Ohtani is going to now spend his prime as the best player on a team with a good chance to go down in history as legendary.
Some of the Shohei Ohtani’s actions can only really be understood with a basic knowledge of Japanese Baseball [and/or culture]. While Americans love their sporting contests, Football reigns very comfortably as the number one American sport, and Basketball and Baseball compete for a distant second place (a competition that Baseball has been losing). It is a far cry from 100 years ago when Baseball was unquestionably the supreme American sport and was called the National Pastime with good reason. In Japan, there is not this problem. The Japanese have two main sports, Baseball and Sumo. And Baseball is pretty much clearly number one.* In a way, the Baseball players and pitchers coming out of Japan are throwbacks to the men who at one time existed here. The very best Japanese players, such as Ichiro Suzuki and Shohei Ohtani, live and breathe Baseball in a way that American professional athletes are probably now incapable of doing. That the current best Baseball player in the world came out of the Japanese Baseball ecosystem was almost inevitable. One of the most unusual aspects of Shohei Ohtani’s signing of his LA Dodger contract was that he also reportedly presented the exact same contract to his former team, the LA Angels, and asked them if they would match it. But, even if the Angels had said yes, it is almost certain that Ohtani would have turned them down. His offer of the same contract to the Angels was meant as a sign of respect. Interestingly, the Angels seemed to understand the gesture and politely declined to match the Dodger offer. But this was a very Japanese thing for Ohtani to do.
*Robert Whiting’s wonderful seminal books on Japanese Baseball culture, The Chrysanthemum and the Bat and You Gotta Have Wa, still stand as probably the best introductions to Baseball in Japan.
7. What the Future Holds for Ohtani
Ever since he arrived in the Major Leagues, Shohei Ohtani has continued to improve. He closed the holes in his swing, becoming ever more dangerous. He has refined his pitching repertoire, becoming ever more unhittable. But was 2023 his apex? It is inevitable that Ohtani will not be as valuable in 2024 as he was from 2021-2023.* In 2024, he will only be hitting, not hitting and pitching. On July 5th of 2024, Ohtani will turn 30 years old. Common wisdom holds that the typical baseball player peaks when he is 26 to 27 years old and then slowly declines until he is about 30 years old; before rapidly declining in his later 30s. Few Baseball players last until they are 40 years old [or older]. But Ohtani is anything but typical. The year 2022 was Ohtani’s best year as a pitcher. The year 2023 was Ohtani’s best year as a hitter [and overall]. Can he improve offensively in 2024? Ohtani will be able to focus solely on his batting this year. Of couse, Ohtani will also begin 2024 less than one year removed from his second Tommy John procedure. As Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper showed in 2023, recovery from Tommy John surgery can rob a hitter of his power for quite some time. It will be interesting to see if this is the case with Ohtani. A conservative prediction would probably state that it is likely that Ohtani’s power (his home runs and slugging percentage) will go down in 2024 while his on-base skills (walks and on-base percentage) will go up. A more optimistic projection will have Ohtani breaking the LA Dodgers’ single season home run record [49] while also becoming the first Dodger to hit 50 or more home runs in a season. In any event, it will be fascinating to see him bat in the heart of the Dodger’s line-up.
*2021-2023 Ohtani Total WAR: 2021-9.0 [batting 4.9 and pitching 4.1]; 2022-9.6 [3.4 batting and 6.2 pitching]; 2023-10.0 [6.0 batting and 4.0 pitching]; but, if injuries had not ended his 2023 season early, Ohtani was on pace for about a 12.0 WAR season.
But the real fun will start in 2025. If Ohtani is healthy, there is a chance that he may turn in one of the greatest seasons of all time. In fact, if his health holds, Ohtani may just peak anywhere between 2025 and 2029. Of course, there is a chance that Ohtani will spend the late 2020s declining like a normal player. But there have been many position players who, for one reason or another, continued to improve into their early 30s [Honus Wagner and Joe Morgan, for example].* Even more pitchers have continued to improve in their 30s. The flamethrower Randy Johnson peaked from 1999 to 2002 when he was 35 to 38. Is there any reason to believe that Ohtani could have a late career renaissance like Joe Morgan or Randy Johnson (or both)? The answer to that question is obviously yes (though that doesn’t mean it will happen, just that it might). What Ohtani is doing, juggling a career as a pitcher and a hitter is tremendously hard. Time spent perfecting his pitching takes away time perfecting his hitting (and vice versa). Ohtani reportedly eats, sleeps, and dreams Baseball. It seems like there is a good chance that he still has some room to improve. In fact, he was still improving in 2023. How great a season could Ohtani actually have if he does continue to improve for awhile? Ohtani has already had 6 Wins Above Replacement [WAR] seasons as both a hitter and as a pitcher [not the same season though]. If he peaks together a 12 WAR season would be inevitable. But perhaps he could go even higher, maybe even much higher. It is unlikely but only time will tell.
*Morgan spent his early career battling both injuries and a manager who he thought was a racist [Harry Walker]. Traded to Cincinnati, Morgan learned to re-love Baseball from his teammate, Pete Rose, and had a ferocious peak at the late age of 32.
What the Future Holds for the Dodgers
The signing of Yoshinabo Yamamoto, who has been the best pitcher in the Japanese Major Leagues from 2021 to 2023, shows that the LA Dodgers now have an advantage, probably a great one, in any future attempts to sign the very best Japanese players. Yamamoto himself, while admitting that he would have probably signed with the Dodgers in any case, did also state that the opportunity to play with Shohei Ohtani was a consideration (and it certainly helped that Shohei went out of his way to make Yamamoto feel welcome). However, the most interesting thing, by far, about Yamamoto’s signing was that he obviously solicited offers from other teams [the Mets, Yankees, and Giants in particular]; and then gave the Dodgers the opportunity to match the best offer. In fact, the Yankees offer was probably superior to the Dodgers’ offer. The Dodgers seem to have sealed the deal by offering the reverse of the Ohtani’s deal. Instead of deferring money, the Dodgers paid Yamamoto an upfront bonus of 50 million dollars [which also reportedly escapes the very onerous California State Tax]. If many of the future Japanese star players who come over also give the Dodgers the opportunity to match any offer, this will give the Dodgers an enormous advantage. Who wouldn’t prefer, all things being equal, to play on the team that employs the “Babe Ruth” of Japan? In the very near future, two more great Japanese superstars [players with Hall of Fame caliber talent] will almost certainly be posted to play in the MLB. If the Dodgers sign both of these players, pitcher Roki Sasaki and home-run hitter deluxe Munetaka Murakami, the Dodgers may be renamed the Japan Giants or Tokyo Dodgers.
But the Dodgers still have to hold up their end of the bargain. The Dodgers need to field a winning team. After signing Ohtani, they immediately signed Yamamoto and also front-line starter Tyler Glasnow [to an extension of 5 years for 136.5 million dollars]. Of course, Glasnow is a risk due to his injury history. But the injury risk is counterbalanced by his tremendous upside. Like Ohtani, Glasnow recently had a Tommy John surgery [2021]. His return in 2023 from the surgery was delayed by an oblique issue too. But Glasnow still managed to reach a career-high in starts (21) and innings (120). Interestingly, Glasnow claimed in his initial interviews after the Dodger signed him that his elbow, which had been bothering him for basically his entire MLB career, finally felt whole. If that is true, there is a actual chance that Tyler Glasnow will be the LA Dodgers’ best pitcher going forward. In multiple ways, the signings of both Yamamoto and Glasnow are almost as important as the signing of Ohtani himself. The Dodgers have announced that, not only do they have the Babe Ruth of Japan playing for them, they will go the whole nine yards to give him the supporting players that he deserves. They seem to be intent on becoming a modern version of the 1927 New York Yankees (or maybe just the Yankees of the late 1990s). Currently, the All-Time Baseball record for consecutive 100 or more win seasons is three, held by multiple teams. The Dodgers have won 100 or more games in 2021 [106], 2022 [111], and 2023 [100]. In 2024, the LA Dodgers are probably even money to become the first team to win 100 or more games in four consecutive seasons. And then five in 2025.
Postscript #1: The Elvis Moment
Perhaps the best thing about Shohei Ohtani’s signing with the LA Dodgers was his channeling of an American icon, Elvis Presley.* With the LA Angels, Ohtani’s uniform number was 17. But in 2023, relief pitcher Joe Kelly wore that number for the Dodgers. Ashley Kelly, his wife, posted on their social media an offer to give her husband’s number to Shohei if he signed with the Dodgers. She even [one would assume jokingly] offered to rename her baby, Kai, to Shokai. When Ohtani finally did sign with the Dodgers on December 11, Ashley proceeded to post an Instagram video of her throwing Kelly’s old number 17 uniforms onto their front lawn. She also drew a “Kelly 99” on the back of his shirt with a sharpie. Under this obvious pressure, Joe Kelly agreed to give up the uniform number 17 and took 99 instead as his new one. Then, on December 23, 2023, Shohei Ohtani had a brand new Porsche delivered to a flabbergasted Ashley as as a token of his appreciation and Xmas present. It may be impossible to root against Ohtani.
*Elvis reportedly gave away a lot of automobiles during his life, but probably his most famous gift of a car happened in July 1975. He was shopping for cars in a Memphis, Tennessee, Cadillac dealership. A young black woman named Minnie Pearson walked by and was admiring the cars on display. Noticing her looking, Elvis bought her a brand new white and gold Cadillac that retailed for $11,500. Of course, Elvis may have been as high as a kite when he did this. Ohtani was presumably sober.
Postscript #2: Memories of McGraw
The Dodgers pursuit of great Asian and Mexican players to give their large fan bases of those respective LA populations someone that they can identify with is reminiscent of New York Giants’ manager John McGraw’s [from 1902-1932] career long search for a great Hebrew player that would bring the large New York City Jewish population out to the Polo Grounds. Unfortunately, McGraw had no luck at all fielding such Jewish players as Moses Solomon, the Rabbi of Swat. And, in an irony that still makes one laugh, McGraw then passed on the greatest Jewish player of the era (and possibly all time) when Hank Greenberg showed up for a tryout. The LA Dodgers, with Fernando Valenzuela and Hideo Nomo and now Shohei Ohtani, have not been so unlucky.
Postscript #3: The Dodgers sign Teoscar Hernandez [January 8, 2024]
One day after this post was published, the Dodgers continued their “Dr. Evil” plan to conquer the Baseball World by signing Teoscar Hernandez. At his best in 2021, the 28-year-old Hernandez hit 32 home runs, drove in 116 RBIs, and batted .296 while playing for the Toronto Blue Jays. With 2023 being his last year before achieving free agency, Toronto traded him to Seattle before the season started. Under pressure to perform and now playing in a new city and in a notable pitching park, Hernandez had a down year [26 HRs, 93 RBIs, and a .258 BA while striking out a whopping 211 times, up from his previous high of 163 during 2018, his first full season]. Interestingly, Hernandez struck out 107 times at home and 104 on the road but slashed just .217/.263/.380 [BA-OBP-SA] at home and .295/.344/.486 on the road. It is pretty obvious why the Dodgers signed Hernandez. They needed a powerful right-handed hitter to balance their majority left-handed line-up [Hernandez smacked lefties to the tune of .287/.307/.510 in 2023 and has swatted them at a .275/.329/.557 pace for his career]. They obviously figured getting him out of Seattle’s Kingdome #2 would not hurt.* Oddly, the Dodgers signed Hernandez to just a one year deal. It seems like a two year deal [or one year deal with options] would have lifted some of the pressure to perform that may have fueled his 211 strikeouts in 2023. But the Dodgers may believe that they are better suited to deal with the psychology in any case. Best case scenario: Hernandez repeats his 2021 stats in 2024. Worst case scenario [un-injured]: Hernandez repeats his 2023 season stats in 2024 and the Dodgers collect a draft pick for him and move on in 2025. Either scenario is probably a win for the Dodgers. More importantly, the Dodgers continue to uphold [to the extreme] their end of their bargain with Shohei Ohtani to build a Superteam around him.
*Branded Safeco Field at first and now as T-Mobile Park for the money.