Ohtani, the phenomenon who aspires to earn 600 million, the largest contract ever: "There has been no one like him in all of history"

Baseball teams are divided into two: players who pitch and those who hit.. Both roles are highly specialized, with pitchers rarely hitting and hitters never, ever, ever pitching.. In the history of the best league in the world, the American MLB, there have been several players who have combined both tasks, but no one had done it successfully since Babe Ruth literally a century ago.. Until Shohei Ohtani appeared. In 2017, the one who was already a phenomenon in Japan arrived at the Los Angeles Angels at the age of 24 amid enormous expectations – something similar to what he experienced with LeBron James or Victor Wembanyama in the NBA – and turned the competition upside down: always among the best in pitching and hitting, he was chosen All-Star in both tasks for the first time in history and named MVP in both 2021 and 2023.

“There is no one like him in all of history, it is very complicated to do both at the highest level and, in fact, I would say that it is an unrepeatable case. If he had not grown up in Japan and had grown up in the United States, they would have forced him to specialize,” analyzes Fernando Díaz, Movistar's MLB commentator, and adds: “That's why all the teams want him now.”

And that's the story. Ohtani is about to break with everything beyond baseball: he can sign the highest contract in the history of world sports. It will not do so in annual salary, but it threatens Leo Messi's record thanks to the tradition of MLB teams of establishing very long agreements – 10 seasons or even 11, 12, 13 or 14 -. If the Argentine footballer earned 555 million euros in four years at Barcelona as revealed by EL MUNDO, the Japanese could secure up to 624 million euros to earn in a decade.

A fortune for an injured person

The figure is a matter of debate in all sports gatherings in the United States – it ranges between 366 and 624 million – and depends on several factors.. One, for example, is the competition between the teams that aspire to sign him. The New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox and New York Mets are suitors, but we will have to see to what extent they are willing to risk. Because another factor is that Ohtani is currently injured.

“Until August I was having the most brilliant season ever, crazy, and I could have asked for anything I wanted.”. Now there are more things to value, although there is only one Ohtani,” explains Díaz. In September, the star underwent surgery on his good elbow for the second time in his career and will not be able to pitch until 2025 at the earliest, so he will spend a year focused only on hitting.. The player's agents have assured that in 2026 he will once again be the historic 'two-ways player' that he has been in recent years, but, of course, there are doubts. Maybe the best version of the Japanese will not return, perhaps his most brilliant moment has already passed.

Objective: be a planetary idol

In the Angels, in addition, Ohtani hardly had any pressure, since the team has been adrift for some time, out of the playoffs and in the shadow of their neighbors, the Dodgers, who won the World Series in 2020. When he signs for a title contender, he must be a leader as well as an excellent hitter and an excellent pitcher.. He will also need to mature off the field.

Because until now the Japanese has dedicated himself to shining and that's it. In the shadow of his translator, Ippei Mizuhara, who is at the same time his assistant and a kind of coach, does not respond in English in interviews and has barely revealed his personality in them.. If anything, his parents were also athletes – his father played baseball and his mother played badminton -, that he practiced swimming as a child and that he likes to sleep more than 10 hours a day..

All this has prevented him from being a planetary star, even the biggest idol in the United States, but not in Japan.. In his country Ohtani is considered a star among stars, with millions of followers who buy his shirt and everything he advertises.. “The translator is a barrier, but if he ends up in one of the best teams in the league, like the Yankees, the Dodgers or the Cubs, his media profile will grow infinitely,” analyzes Díaz, who awaits a decision from the Japanese before end of the year. The next season in the MLB will begin in March and a couple of months before the teams must already know if they should take charge of the largest contract in the history of sports or not..