![]() “Basically, close to the entire league was wanting a shot at him, and rightfully so. It was unprecedented,” CAA’s Nez Balelo, Ohtani’s agent, wrote in an email to The Athletic. “What came through from the in-person meetings with the teams was that it was something no one in this business has ever experienced. A generational talent could be had by any team at minimal cost. Such a small disparity opened an unprecedented recruitment frenzy. Instead, beyond a posting fee, the difference in offers for Ohtani’s services were minimal, a matter of just a couple million dollars in international signing bonus slots. Through Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement, Ohtani would have been in line to agree to a potential nine-figure contract had he just waited two more years to be posted. The timing signaled the earnestness of his goal. The 23-year-old was coming to CAA in Los Angeles, aiming to be posted after an at-times dominant run in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and to accomplish what had not been done in the major leagues since the days of Babe Ruth - to become a star at the plate and on the mound against the game’s best players. Seattle’s Jerry Dipoto, one of the general managers who vied for Ohtani’s services, compared Ohtani to the fictional Roy Hobbs, whose preternatural gifts at the plate and on the mound elicited comparisons to mythology.Ī month earlier, Ohtani made his intentions known. 1 pick viewed as one of the most surefire amateur talents in recent memory. One scouting director compared Ohtani’s pitching profile to Stephen Strasburg, the former No. The hype that surrounded him dating to his high school days in a rural prefecture in Northern Japan led one former general manager to compare him to Bryce Harper, who as a teenager landed magazine covers with his 500-foot blasts. Shohei Ohtani’s skills made him a baseball unicorn. Over the course of two days in December 2017, seven of the sport’s top decision-makers - representing the Dodgers, Giants, Cubs, Padres, Rangers, Mariners and Angels - descended upon the base with a simple aim. The sparkling structure was just over a decade old and adorned with holiday decorations when it became the center of the baseball world.
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