Farhan Zaidi: SF Giants matched Dodgers offer for star Shohei Ohtani

SF Giants fans have every right to be frustrated by Shohei Ohtani choosing the Los Angeles Dodgers, but Farhan Zaidi reiterated that the franchise did everything it could.

When the news broke that Shohei Ohtani was signing a 10-year, $700 million dollar deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, SF Giants fans probably felt deja vu as another aircraft carrier-level free agent slipped through San Francisco's fingers. Because of the parameters set by Ohtani’s camp, the information leaked by front offices was relatively limited besides a controversial Dave Roberts monologue. Still, now details from the various brain trusts that participated in the bidding war are emerging. However, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi told reporters on a conference call on Tuesday that they matched the Dodgers offer.

“The proposal that was made was very comparable if not identical to what he wound up agreeing to,” Zaidi told reporters. “We offered what would have been the biggest contract in major league history. I’m guessing we weren’t the only team that did that.”

He said that the proposal from San Francisco and the final contract he got from the Dodgers were extremely similar, which means that Ohtani chose Los Angeles over San Francisco. Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic later reported that it was made clear to the Giants that exceeding the Dodgers offer would not have ultimately changed the decision.

With Ohtani’s emphasis on landing at a destination where he could feasibly complete for a World Series, it makes perfect sense that he would opt to wear Dodger Blue instead of Orange and Black considering the presence of Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. There’s also the fact that Ohtani had an extremely unique opportunity to change teams without having to relocate from one city to another, as he played for the Los Angeles Angels from 2017 to 2023. With the distance between San Francisco and Los Angeles being almost 400 miles, the geography could have been a legitimate factor as mentioned by Zaidi.