On precipice of free agency mega-deal, Ohtani set to wow MLB again

Shohei Ohtani joined the Los Angeles Angels ahead of the 2018 season, and has been a worldwide phenomenon since.

He played the first five seasons of his professional baseball career with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of the Japan Pacific League, and audiences in North America only heard rumblings.

A young player who could both hit and pitch at a major-league level – something not done since one of baseball's kings, Babe Ruth, did it for the Boston Red Sox in the 1910s.

When the Angels paid an unprecedented $20 million posting fee to the Fighters for the rights to sign Ohtani, the name began to circulate and Ohtani was named Major League Baseball's top prospect ahead of the 2018 season.

As it turned out, the stories were true – Ohtani won AL Rookie of the Year in 2018 after hitting .285 with 22 home runs in 367 plate appearances on top of pitching to a 3.31 earned runs average in 51.2 innings at age 23.

The story entered another level in 2021, his first fully healthy season as a pitcher and hitter: he won the AL MVP award unanimously with an unbelievable 46 home runs and .965 on base plus slugging from the dish and a 9-2 record with 156 strikeouts and a 3.18 ERA in 130.1 innings from the mound.

He followed that up by finishing second in AL MVP voting last season after hitting 34 home runs and pitching to a 2.33 ERA with 219 strikeouts in 166 innings.

Per the current MLB collective bargaining agreement, a player is eligible for free agency after six seasons in the majors – or six years of service time – are completed.

Once the 2023 season is concluded, Ohtani will have spent his sixth season on the Angels' major league roster and will garner undoubtedly the largest contract in major league history, if not professional sports history.

The current distinction for largest contract in the MLB belongs to Ohtani's teammate, Mike Trout.

The 31-year-old signed a 12-year, $426.5 million deal in 2019, though the three-time AL MVP and 10-time All-Star has never led the Angels to the playoffs alongside Ohtani in their five tries together.

This begs the question: with Ohtani a possibility to sign a contract with a new team in 2024, what can be expected of the Angels this season?

They finished a disappointing third in the AL West a year ago with a 73-89 record, as injuries ravaged a once-promising lineup: of their opening-day lineup, only four of the nine hitters appeared in more than 120 games.

That list of injured regulars includes third baseman Anthony Rendon, who signed a seven-year, $245 million contract with Los Angeles ahead of the 2020 season and has played 157 of a possible 384 games in the last three seasons.

When Rendon last played healthy, he finished in the top 15 of MVP voting four seasons in a row. But at age 33 in 2023, he will be a question mark for production.

The Angels picked up a few players in the 2023 off-season, including pitcher Tyler Anderson from the Los Angeles Dodgers and third baseman / utilityman Brandon Drury from the San Diego Padres, but it will take a healthy season from a lot of aging players to see the Angels return to the postseason.

As for Ohtani, playing for Japan at this year's World Baseball Classic during Spring Training has skyrocketed his popularity and reaffirmed to the world that he is indeed a star.

Ohtani batted .435 with one home run, four doubles, eight RBI and 10 walks at the plate while delivering a 1.86 ERA on the mound with 11 strikeouts in 9.2 innings. He capped off Japan’s perfect tournament by striking out Trout to complete the save in a 3-2 victory for Japan.

He earned WBC MVP honours, and his popularity skyrocketed throughout the tournament – Ohtani went from just under two million followers on Instagram before the beginning of the tournament to well over four million by tournament’s end. Trout is the second-most popular MLB star on social media with roughly two million followers on Instagram.

As the major leagues have not seen a player like Ohtani in more than 100 years (Ruth stopped pitching regularly following the 1919 season, completing just 31 innings in 15 seasons with the Yankees), it is impossible to predict what kind of contract he will receive after the 2023 season. One thing is for sure: it will be the largest in major league history.