Ohtani’s agent provides inside look at historic negotiations
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – The most lucrative free agent sweepstakes in sports history, culminating with Shohei Ohtani signing a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, is finally over.
Nez Balelo, Ohtani’s agent, is being widely celebrated for his historic deal, but he also hears the criticism. Ohtani’s massive deferrals, paying him $2 million annually and deferring $68 million each year, lowers the overall value to $460 million, according to Major League Baseball’s valuations.
Frankly, he and Ohtani couldn’t care less, and Balelo is not about to apologize for Ohtani’s burning desire to win.
“There’s no need to defend yourself on this,” Balelo told USA TODAY Sports in a 90-minute interview, “because it is the most incredible act of unselfishness and willingness to win that I’ve ever experienced in my life or ever will. He did not care at all about the present value inflation. And you know what, neither did I.
“He should be praised for this. He did not want to handcuff a team with his salary. He said, ‘How can I contribute to a team and allow them to stay competitive? So he took the most unselfish approach possible and deferred everything.’ ”
Besides, deferred or not, it is still $700 million that will be paid to Ohtani, nearly twice as much for any other baseball player in history.
“Even at $2 million, he still will be the highest-paid player in baseball for at least the next five years,” Balelo said. “He’s in such a unique position because he’s going to make so much money off the field.”
Ohtani is projected to earn at least $50 million in endorsements beginning next year, so until someone is earning more than $52 million a year, no one will be higher paid.
Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout receives the second-most money in endorsements at just $5 million.
“Basically, he’s in the most unique position of any player in the history of the game to be able to do this,” Balelo says. “It’s not like we’re setting a precedent that every player now is going to defer everything out in his contract.”
If there’s a precedent to be made, says Balelo, co-head of baseball at CAA
Sports, it may be how he conducted negotiations with teams. The entire process was cloaked in secrecy, frustrating reporters, and leading to a series of erroneous reports two weeks ago that Ohtani was signing with the Toronto Blue Jays.
“I felt really, really bad for the country of Canada,” Balelo said. “And I felt really, really bad for the Toronto Blue Jays organization. They are really good people. What they had to endure, and the pain, wasn’t right. I felt so bad for all of them that they had to go through that because it was the extreme emotional roller coaster of thinking that they had him and then finding out they didn’t.
“That was about the most reckless reporting I’ve ever experienced in this game.”
The false reports provoked several teams to frantically call Balelo to see exactly what was true. The Dodgers knew the reports were false because Balelo had asked them earlier in the day, according to Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations, if they would be willing
to meet the request of the 10-year, $700 million contract with $680 million deferred. The Blue Jays knew Ohtani wasn’t on a plane to Toronto because nothing was scheduled. And certainly, they were well aware that Ohtani had not reached an agreement with them.
Balelo met with Ohtani at 5 p.m. at his home Dec. 8 when Ohtani informed him that he wanted to sign with the Dodgers. It was no surprise to Balelo. The Dodgers were always at the forefront in talks. They even laughed at the uproar caused when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts candidly revealed at the winter meetings that the team and Ohtani had a private meeting at Dodger Stadium, remembering a published report that anything coming publicly from a team would be used against them.
The most agonizing aspect of the ordeal was informing teams Dec. 9 that Ohtani didn’t choose them. Balelo called Friedman that morning at his son’s soccer game in Anaheim and informed him that Ohtani picked the Dodgers and soon would be announcing his decision on his Instagram account. He called the Blue Jays. He called the San Francisco Giants. He called the Chicago Cubs. And he called the Angels, Ohtani’s home for the past six years.
The Dodgers, despite reports, never suddenly increased their offer in the last moments to make Ohtani change his mind. The Giants actually had the identical contract proposal on the table that Ohtani accepted with the Dodgers, according to Farhan Zaidi, Giants president of baseball operations. The Blue Jays’ proposal was similar. And the Angels simply refused to match.
“The Angels are special to Shohei,” Balelo said last week at the press conference with the Dodgers. “He was there for the last six years. Everybody has to understand. We felt that they earned the right to at least have a discussion at the end. And that’s what we did. …
“The Angels had every opportunity. And we had every opportunity. But at the end, it just wasn’t going to work.”
One high-ranking executive familiar with the Angels’ negotiations said team owner Arte Moreno refused to accept the heavy deferrals. The Angels don’t have a single player with deferred money and weren’t about to start now.
If the Angels had agreed to match the Dodgers’ offer, would Ohtani have elected to stay with the Angels?
“We’ll never know,” Balelo said, “will we?”
What we do know is that Ohtani will be spending perhaps the rest of his MLB playing career with the Dodgers, where 70 million viewed his televised press conference, shown at 8 a.m. in Japan.
The biggest star in the game is now playing for one of baseball’s iconic franchises that has just one World Series title, in the shortened 2020 COVID-19 season, since Kirk Gibson’s home run was heard ’round the world in 1988.
There’s no clause in his contract that specifies the Dodgers have to be competitive, but considering they have reached the postseason 11 consecutive years with 10 NL West titles, it’s obvious the Dodgers aren’t about to go into a rebuild any time in the next few decades.
Ohtani’s unprecedented contract, which counts for $46 million in the competitive balance tax ledger instead of $70 million, is already paying dividends. The Dodgers used that savings to acquire Tampa Bay Rays ace Tyler Glasnow in a trade.
Yes, Sho-Time has started in Los Angeles before he even put on his first pair of spikes.