Shohei Ohtani is a once-in-a-lifetime talent, as he dominates as both a hitter and pitcher. As a result, let’s look at how much he’d get paid if he were two separate players.
Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani has emerged as a generational player in the majors due to his elite skill level as a two-way player. One can see that by his stats just this past season alone.
In 157 games as a hitter, he had 34 home runs, 95 RBIs, and a .273 batting average. Meanwhile, in 28 appearances on the mound, he sported a 15-9 record to go along with a 2.33 ERA. That is just simply outrageous stuff.
With Ohtani set to be an unrestricted free agent next offseason, he is surely going to land a massive payday. As a result of this, Spotrac recently wrote their current valuations for Ohtani as both a pitcher and hitter individually. Needless to say, the numbers are quite high.
As two separate players, Ohtani would make a plethora of money
Spotrac first listed the contract Ohtani would likely receive if he was solely a pitcher. They predicted that we would land an eight-year, $230 million contract, which equates to $28.75 million per season. That would put him among some of the highest-paid pitchers in the league.
Yet, as solely a hitter, Spotrac expects that Ohtani would land an even greater contract. They predicted that Ohtani’s contract as solely a hitter would be a 10-year, $333 million deal. That would pay him $33.3 million per season.
Now, when noting that Ohtani is a two-way superstar, is it fair to expect that he should make more than both of those contracts as a free agent? It wouldn’t be surprising at all if that ended up being the case, as he would give any team that signs him both an ace pitcher and an elite hitter.
Therefore, it’s likely that Ohtani will receive the biggest contract in league history, but alas, time will tell what happens on that front.