NL West Rival Giants Matched Dodgers' Contract Offer for Shohei Ohtani

San Francisco was serious in their pursuit of Ohtani.

Shohei Ohtani is officially a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t twists and turns to get to this point.

There were plenty of other serious suitors to land Ohtani this offseason, but in the end, Ohtani was always going to be a Los Angeles Dodgers. But LA’s biggest rival did put up a strong fight until the very end.

The Dodgers gave Ohtani a 10-year,$700 million contract with some major deferrals within. In a conference call on Tuesday, San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi revealed that they offered the same contract to Ohtani, but he just picked the Dodgers.

Zaidi says on conf call the Giants offered Ohtani biggest deal in ML history out of the gate; assumes they aren't the only ones. Also revised deal upwards.

— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) December 13, 2023

Zaidi believes that the appeal of staying in Southern California won out in the end with Ohtani, but this is interesting. It was reported that the Giants were going to be very aggressive in their pursuit of the two-way superstar, and it appears that they were.

The Giants fans can take solace in the fact that their front office did everything that it could to land Ohtani. He just liked the Dodgers a little better, which can happen in free agency.

Comparing the two franchises, the Dodgers give Ohtani a much better chance to win in the short and long term. And this was another sign of the Giants not being able to land a superstar talent.

They almost had their guy last season, but a failed physical on Carlos Correa killed the deal. The team did land Korean outfielder Jung Hoo Lee, however, giving them some extra power in their lineup.

It always felt like Ohtani was destined to be a member of the Dodgers, and now the dream has come true.