How the Dodgers Won the Shohei Sweepstakes

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2023

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

While the whole baseball world collectively held their breath in anticipation of any update on Shohei Ohtani’s free agency, one thing became clear: this was not going to be MLB’s version of LeBron James’ The Decision. There was complete radio silence from both Ohtani’s camp and the teams rumored to be in the running for his services…well, most of them at least. But when the dust settled on Saturday, the numbers were still staggering, shattering even the most ambitious expectations: Ohtani is heading to the Los Angeles Dodgers on a 10-year, $700 million deal…oh and by the way, $680 million of those dollars will be deferred until 2034. So today, Alden Gonzalez explains how this union between the sport’s best player and one of its most marketable teams came together, what the price tag tells us about both sides…and what the fallout might be across the Big Leagues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Alton Gonzalez, long time no see. I'm assuming you made it back from Nashville all good. How are you, sir?
0:08.0	I'm doing great, Clinton. Yes, I did make it back from Nashville, okay. I would have loved a little bit more action but at
0:14.9	least we got Juan Soto. Did you even make it outside of the building and what was that experience like overall for you
0:24.3	Alan? I did not maybe briefly I made it outside the building for the most part I
0:30.8	breathed in some artificial air in what has been described to me as a
0:35.1	bio dome environment.
0:38.2	If people don't know what the Gaylord Opera Land Resort is, it is just a gigantic hotel that has its own artificial river that flows throughout it. It's basically its own ecosystem and nothing penetrates it including any real MLB news which is what happened that week.
0:57.0	If you've ever seen the movie Biodome my favorite line is we got lots of stuff to eat.
1:01.0	We have jiffies we have jiffies, we got lots of stuff to eat.
1:05.0	A lot, don't know.
1:07.0	Shot laughing gosh.
1:09.0	Anyway, we did not get the news that we were looking for during the meetings, but on Saturday it came around.
1:14.6	Shohay O'Tani, the most unique and probably sought after a free agent in, honestly, baseball history,
1:20.4	agreed to a 10-year, 700 million dollar deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
1:26.4	Where were you exactly when you got the news and what did you take?
1:30.0	I was home, I was watching the kids, my wife was working that day which was beautiful timing as always and like everybody in the world Clinton I was stunned not so much by his selection of the Dodgers but what got me Clinton was the number
1:46.8	seven hundred million dollars. I remember when I threw out at the beginning of the year from talking to executives that he could sign a 500 million dollar contract
1:56.4	People were shocked since then he tore his u.c.
2:00.4	We don't know how he's gonna come back as a pitcher and he signed for 700 million dollars.
2:08.0	Nobody and I mean nobody expected that. We all went into MOB's winter meetings waiting for the news of where Shohai O'Tani was taking his talents.
2:29.0	What we got was weeks of basically radio silence until Saturday when the baseball world experienced sticker shock.
2:39.0	700 million dollars, an unimaginable hall for Otani and a sign of just how badly the Dodgers wanted him.
	...

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