Sox officially enter pursuit for Ohtani
Shohei Ohtani is officially on the open market, and the Red Sox are officially interested in signing the two-way player from Japan.
President and CEO Dave Dombrowski confirmed in a text that the Red Sox have Ohtani, who wants to both hit and be a starting pitcher in the United States, in their sights.
“Would acknowledge our interest,” typed Dombrowski in a text yesterday. “Beyond that, all would be confidential.”
That the Red Sox have interest does not qualify as a surprise.
All 30 major league teams will take a crack at Ohtani, considering the extraordinarily cheap pricetag for a player with his considerable and unique tool kit.
Ohtani’s imminent posting was announced by Major League Baseball yesterday after it reached an agreement with the players’ union and Nippon Professional Baseball regarding a protocol allowing for the transfer of Ohtani from the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and one other player, right-handed pitcher Kazuhisa Makita of the Saitama Seibu Lions.
The circumstances for signing Ohtani are unique to say the least. Representatives of Ohtani have asked all 30 clubs to answer a questionnaire with seven questions about why he should play for their team.
Like a lotto ticket — you can’t win if you don’t play — all 30 teams are expected to turn in the questionnaire. The winning club needs to pay the Ham Fighters $20 million, and the initial signing bonus for Ohtani cannot exceed a team’s international bonus money, a figure that is now topped by the Texas Rangers’ $3.55 million.
Ohtani must be signed before midnight, Dec. 22.
Ohtani, 23 years old, has received the same degree of unanimity from scouts that other Japanese talents, such as Daisuke Matsuzaka, Ichiro Suzuki, Masahiro Tanaka and Hideki Matsui, have over the last couple of decades that their skill would translate well to competition in North America.
None of those Japanese stars had the proven ability of Ohtani to have a significant impact both with his bat and arm.
The Red Sox have scouted Ohtani, and will be able to point to the success Matsuzaka had, at times, in Boston, as well as Japanese pitchers Koji Uehara, Hideki Okajima and Junichi Tazawa.
Return to tender
As expected the Red Sox tendered contracts to all of their unsigned players on the 40-man roster including the 13 arbitration-eligible players.
The 13 Red Sox tendered contracts, along with their projected salaries, are: Drew Pomeranz ($9.1 million), Mookie Betts ($8.2M), Xander Bogaerts ($7.6M), Jackie Bradley Jr. ($5.9M), Joe Kelly ($3.6M), Eduardo Rodriguez ($2.7M), Tyler Thornburg ($2.1M), Sandy Leon ($2.1M), Brock Holt ($2M), Christian Vazquez ($1.5M), Steven Wright ($1.2M), Carson Smith ($1.1M) and Brandon Workman ($900,000).
Adams on market
Among the group of non-tendered players who joined the free agent pool after the deadline was first baseman Matt Adams, who could be a fallback option for the Red Sox if they fail to land a more desirable slugging candidate.