“They know the potential earnings” - Dodgers ace Tyler Glasnow not surprised by club paying Shohei Ohtani $700,000,000 with his marketability
Shohei Ohtani's new contract is massive, but it's not one that surprises Tyler Glasnow all that much. The new Los Angeles Dodgers teammates will fill out their rotation (and Ohtani in the lineup) for the next few years, something due in part to the fact that the team threw nearly $1 billion at Ohtani.
The contract he signed was for 10 years and $700 million. It's an astonishing contract, one larger than any other in the history of American sports. For Glasnow, it wasn't all that surprising.
In an interview, he recalled seeing that there were rumors that Ohtani might get $600 million cumulatively on his deal. The former Los Angeles Angels slugger would be lucky to get that, many estimated.
The Dodgers blew that out of the water, but Glasnow doesn't believe it carries as much risk as it might seem:
"The more you look at it, just the market in general. He brings to LA, there's like a huge Japanese population in LA. I think, if you can't make $700 million off of him in 10 years in LA, like, I think they're going to make that back. I haven't crunched the numbers by any means, but it just seems like there probably was no hesitation because they know the potential earnings they could have."
Glasnow went on to mention that his new teammate is one of the best baseball players to ever live, so it's a worthwhile investment from his perspective.
Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow poised to dominate LA
Shohei Ohtani's contract would ordinarily preclude any MLB team from making any other huge moves in the offseason, but it did not hamper the Los Angeles Dodgers in any way.
They deferred $680 million of the deal and immediately got to work. They traded for Tampa Bay Rays superstar Tyler Glasnow and extended him for five seasons at $135 million.
They also signed Japanese superstar Yoshinobu Yamamoto for $325 million, so they clearly had no qualms about spending a boatload of money and giving these three the chance to become a dominant pitching trio for years in LA.