Dodgers clear +550 favorites to win the World Series
The secretive free agent bidding war for Shohei Ohtani reached the end on Saturday when the Los Angeles Dodgers signed the two-way superstar to a 10-year, $700 million contract. The Ohtani signing was the end to 24 wild hours in baseball, as fans flocked to FlightAware and FlightRadar24 to stalk a private plane from Santa Ana to Toronto throughout the day on Friday, only to find out that businessman and Shark Tank investor Robert Herjavec was on the flight.
Ohtani’s contract features a lot of deferred money, with actual figures not released as of yet, but the terms of the deal were reportedly suggested by Shohei and his representation so that the Dodgers had more funds available to chase down a World Series title.
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Dodgers World Series odds
The Dodgers were among the favorites to win the World Series anyway, but the addition of Ohtani made them the clear-cut favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook at +550, with other books moving from +800 to +600.
Ohtani underwent Tommy John surgery in September to repair his damaged ulnar collateral ligament and he will not pitch during the 2024 season, but he will be able to be the designated hitter. His true market value is in being the game’s lone two-way player as both a hitter and pitcher and his historic contract is representative of that. However, with starting pitching needs for this season, the Dodgers will have to look elsewhere.
Money has been no object in LA’s quest for a title and speculation remains that they could land Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto to bolster the staff. It would certainly ease Yamamoto’s transition to the United States to have Ohtani around. Yamamoto’s contract negotiations are said to be well into the $200 million range.
Shohei Ohtani stats
For the duration of the contract, Ohtani’s pitching numbers are relevant, but not for this season, so I’ll ignore those for now. He had far and away his best offensive season out of six seasons in Major League Baseball this past year, batting .304 with a .412 OBP and a .654 SLG. All three of those were career-highs and he hit 44 homers, which was two shy of his personal record set back in 2021. He played 23 more games that season.
Ohtani also played large swaths of the season without any other feared hitters in the order, as Mike Trout missed time and the Angels failed to surround Ohtani with much of a supporting cast. Now, he resides in a Dodgers lineup that is simply loaded top to bottom and teams won’t be able to pitch around him as easily, as he finished last season with a career-high 15.2% BB%.
Shohei Ohtani contract
It is important to talk more about the contract here. Deferred money means that Ohtani will continue to get paid by the Dodgers after his 10-year deal runs out. What that does in the short-term is limit the cost of the competitive-balance tax hit (CBT) so the Dodgers can partially circumvent some of the provisions put in place by MLB to bridge the gaps between the teams with large payrolls and those with smaller payrolls.
It will also allow the Dodgers to be able to spend more money on upgrades for the roster, which are needed, at least in terms of starting rotation depth.
The numbers are a lot larger for Ohtani’s contract, but Mookie Betts signed a 12-year, $365 million extension in 2020 with the Dodgers. The Betts deal featured $115 million in deferred money. Betts also got a $65 million signing bonus in the deal, which will be paid off over 15 years.
Freddie Freeman’s contract that was signed in March 2022 also featured $57 million in deferred money with no interest.
This means that the Dodgers gave out an eye-popping number, but still maintained some financial flexibility.
2024 World Series odds
The Dodgers are the +550 favorites and the Braves are the second favorite at +700. The Phillies are +1100 and no other MLB team has odds lower than +2200 (Mets). The Diamondbacks are +2500 as the closest team in the NL West.
The Yankees, who just traded for Juan Soto, are the shortest price in the AL at +900, followed by the Astros and Rangers at +1000.
The Dodgers are also listed at -205 to win the NL West per DraftKings Sportsbook.
