What may have been if Shohei Ohtani signed with the Blue Jays

Shohei Ohtani has simply signed the biggest contract in baseball historical past. 10 years for $700 million with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Whereas there have been different groups within the operating, nobody was nearer to touchdown Ohtani than the Toronto Blue Jays. Everybody was in a frenzy. Studying that the Japanese famous person was in Florida on the Jays’ spring coaching facility, monitoring a non-public jet flying from Santa Ana to Toronto, to information breaking that didn’t find yourself being true, it was so shut however nonetheless thus far for the Canadian membership.

However, what would have occurred if Ohtani did go there?

Contract logistics

Firstly, let’s speak about if they might even have signed him. They’d cash within the price range for certain, but it surely was first estimated that no matter membership landed Ohtani would wish to pay between $500 and $600 million. The Blue Jays have an lively complete payroll of $128,964,255 for 2024 in accordance with Spotrac. Their complete is projected by their calculations to be over $190 billion. All to say, they might have afforded the $700 million that the Dodgers bought Ohtani for. They positively may have signed him, however it seems that staying in California was a much bigger draw.

What does Ohtani carry them?

Including Ohtani to any lineup immediately improves it. No matter hitting or pitching, he’s a twin menace and has proved that all through his time with the Angels. Whereas he might not pitch a lot or in any respect in 2024 after coming off of elbow surgical procedure, he can match that designated hitter function and work himself right into a rotation with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the Blue Jays’ present DH. If he is ready to pitch in any respect subsequent season, he is not going to solely strengthen their mound presence, however assist the catchers enhance too.

Final season, Ohtani had 151 hits in 497 at-bats and a mean of .304. He hit 44 dwelling runs, fourth finest within the league. He additionally had 95 RBIs. Pitching-wise, he threw for 23 video games and had 163 strikeouts and an ERA of three.14. Whereas these may not be his finest pitching stats for a season, his batting common would put him because the fifth-best batter final season primarily based on batting common for the Blue Jays and the ninth-best pitcher by way of ERA.

So, not solely does he carry that presence of somebody who’s so good at baseball it’s scary, however he brings reduction to a Blue Jays roster that struggled with leaving gamers stranded on base. He may have pulled a really succesful roster to their full potential. Consider Michael Jordan when he rejoined the Bulls in 1995. They had been good, however they might have been higher. As soon as he returned, they went 13-4 and clinched a playoff spot. Extremely gifted gamers have the potential to carry that drive and competitiveness to any roster they be part of.

What went flawed?

We gained’t know all the main points that led to Ohtani’s choice till he talks about it within the ensuing press convention that he alluded to in his Instagram publish, however there are some giant prospects. One being that staying in California retains him near dwelling geographically. Japan remains to be nearly a 12-hour flight away from Los Angeles, but it surely’s so much nearer than Toronto can be. The opposite being that there’s hope that his longevity is not going to be broken after his elbow surgical procedure. Spending $700 million on anyone (or something, truthfully) is a ginormous threat. What if it doesn’t play out? What if he can’t pitch like he used to? It’s a legitimate concern, and perhaps Toronto simply didn’t wish to depart any doubts on the desk once they had been considering of drawing up the contract. They wished to be assured, and so they weren’t certain they could possibly be. That seems like probably the most logical purpose why. The cash was there, the roster spot and alternative had been there, however perhaps the arrogance simply wasn’t.