MLB All-Stars Tried to Guess What Shohei Ohtani Will Earn on His Next Contract

No number seemed too high for a generation of stars in awe.
MLB All-Stars Tried to Guess What Shohei Ohtani Will Earn on His Next Contract
MLB All-Stars Tried to Guess What Shohei Ohtani Will Earn on His Next Contract /
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There has never been a free agent quite like Shohei Ohtani.

The Angels designated hitter/pitcher will hit the open market this offseason on the heels of three of the most dominant individual seasons in the history of baseball, barring a complete second-half collapse in 2023. Teams seem likely to back up the Brink's truck for the 29-year-old, whose star continues to ascend.

What kind of salary Ohtani will command is anyone’s guess, but it didn’t stop All-Stars from taking guesses in a video tweeted by the Associated Press Tuesday morning.

“$600 million,” Royals catcher Salvador Perez said.

“He’s got a situation where he’s playing two different positions, pitcher and DH, and doing them at an elite level. Every team should want him. … I don’t wanna put a number on it because I don’t know,” Rangers infielder Marcus Semien said.

“Shoot, I get paid as one player. He’s out there doing things, that’s two players,” Red Sox pitcher Kenley Jansen said. “You gotta pay him as a pitcher, and you gotta pay him as a DH.”

One by one, All-Stars declined to give figures—except for Blue Jays pitcher Jordan Romano, who seconded Perez’s $600 million—but expressed awe at Ohtani’s talents.

“He’s a unicorn,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “I don’t even know how to put a number on that. We’ll all find out together.”


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Patrick Andres
PATRICK ANDRES

Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .