See also: Shohei Ohtani, who basically tanked all potential earning leverage by showing his hand that he does not want to play on the east coast, thus eliminating the deep, deep pockets of the Yankees, Red Sox or Mets from contention of acquiring his services.
I sure hope he’ll be happy winning no more than 87 games a year for the Seattle Mariners for the next 4-5 years, because that’s pretty much the only team remotely close to checking off of the majority of the lengthy number of prerequisites his camp has provided to MLB teams.
Sure, the current MLB collective bargaining agreement has killed off the days of guys like Daisuke Matsuzaka and Masahiro Tanaka getting Oprah-rich as soon as they arrive in the United States, but it’s still a really stupid move for Ohtani’s camp to so quickly eliminate the biggest spenders from contention, just because their client has some preconceived preferences already in place. There’s still tons of deferred and hidden money and perks on the table that teams from New York or Boston could have been used for to offer up to create leverage and raise the stakes from other teams.
It’s almost like nobody on Team Ohtani has ever bought a car in their life or something. You never reveal what your true intentions are, and most certainly never show your hand, until the best possible offers are on the table, and then the next round of negotiations can begin with increased wagers. Once the best shit is out in the open, the buyers can make up whatever bullshit they want or be as transparent as they want to start revealing their end game, but by then, it doesn’t really matter once the offer sheets are printed and presented.
But because Ohtani wants to hit, and hit regularly, it’s safe to assume that the odds of him going to an NL team are extremely low, and that he’ll end up on an AL team, where he can DH, and not run the risk of hamstring or any other injuries that come from playing the field, to prohibit his chances of pitching. And since he’s pretty much shot down the entire east coast, that really limits him to the Seattle Mariners. Oakland doesn’t spend money, the Angels are completely financially locked up, and the Rangers and Astros are about as west as the Dallas Cowboys are considered east. And if Ohtani doesn’t want to play on the east coast, there’s no way he’ll want to play in the central division, with teams like Minnesota, Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City or Cleveland.
So it’s the Mariners, and I think everyone knows it, most importantly, them. It’s not a far stretch to assume Ohtani’s little ego wants to go where Ichiro went, and presumably try to outshine everything he ever did, which is basically like a snowball’s chance in hell, since Ichiro isn’t just the greatest Japanese player in history, he’s among the best to ever play the game, period.
Personally, I think he’s being really stupid by telling suitors to buzz off for one, but also being very staunch about his desire to both pitch and hit. Given the long-term success of most Japanese players not named Ichiro, Ohtani has an uphill battle to begin with even before he even takes the field, and based on how he’s being marketed, it’s battles both on the mound and at the plate. Best case scenario, he becomes a top-of-the-rotation starter with a 3-ish ERA and a decent strikeout ratio, because those are the metrics that everyone chubs up over, while also contributing an OPS of .800+ because that’s what is being expected of him. Worst case scenario, the transition to America takes its toll on him, and he struggles on the mound and then hurts his oblique while swinging for the fences, thus blowing his ability to both pitch and hit. Most realistically I think, is he’ll be noticeably better at one skill than the other, and then the Mariners will be pissed that they’ve basically allocated two rosters spots on one guy who can’t do one of the skills expected of him at a competent level.
Look, I know that I’m definitely someone who exalts those who make decisions based on the love of the game, and personal reasons that aren’t always necessarily tied to money. But the CBA really gave the shaft to foreign players’ ability to earn, and considering the fact that Ohtani is so young and has presumably so many years ahead of him, he’s clearly leaving way more money on the table than he really needed to, when all he had to do was simply follow the same script that every single free agent in every single sport and competitive association seems to know how to do, in order to maximize the money they can make, regardless of if it’s the end game or not.
At this point, Ohtani is jeopardizing not just his career, but considering he hasn’t really made the Oprah-dollars in his career yet, he’s putting his entire life’s future at stake, because of his staunch unwillingness to play the negotiation game, even on default settings.
That’s pretty much a bakayarou alright.
