$1,000,000,000 contract for Shohei Ohtani not outside the realm of possibility, says Mets manager Buck Showalter

Shohei Ohtani's impending free agency is the talk of the town, which is a bit of a shame as he's currently enjoying perhaps the greatest individual season in baseball history. Still, when that occurs in a contract year, people are going to talk about what kind of money it would command on the open market.

That evidently includes members of the New York Mets - even manager Buck Showalter. He revealed via Bleacher Report that someone on the team plane recently suggested that Ohtani could see upwards of $1 billion:

"Someone on our team plane the other day mentioned the 'B' word."

The Mets will be one of Ohtani's biggest suitors. They have an almost endless supply of money thanks to Steve Cohen and they're struggling mightily with the highest payroll.

“Nobody cares about Shohei Ohtani”

Yeah, okay🤣🔥

#大谷翔平 #GoHalos #MLB https://t.co/kFRSMHvYda

They have far too many expensive players to really tear it down, so throwing more money at the problem seems to be the only solution. They will be hard pressed to outbid the Angels, who maintain that they're not trading him and they intend to sign him back in free agency.

Ohtani is comfortable there and chose the team when he first came over to the United States. It might take more than that alleged $1 billion to convince Ohtani to leave.

Shohei Ohtani will command the biggest contract in MLB history

The Los Angeles Angels currently have the largest contract in MLB history based on cumulative value. Mike Trout's $426 million deal remains the biggest. In terms of AAV, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander both make $43.33 million per year.

Fans are getting crazy because of Shohei Ohtani. I don’t blame them. https://t.co/aZUF7qhPOL

Shohei Ohtani will more than likely blow past both those totals. $1 billion seems very far fetched at this stage, but he will easily surpass $500 million. Given that he is only 29, it's not out of the question to expect something along the lines of 13 years and $700 million.

That is an unfathomable amount of money for a sports contract, but Ohtani is an unfathomable player. In truth, no one has ever done what he's doing and he has a case to be the best hitter in the game and one of the best pitchers.