It turns out Los Angeles Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani didn’t even need to reach free agency to make some financial history in 2023.
Forbes’ Justin Birnbaum wrote about baseball’s highest-paid players and pointed out that Ohtani will earn an estimated $65M for the upcoming season between his salary and endorsement deals, an MLB record for any one player.
It was learned this past October that Ohtani and the Angels had agreed to a one-year, $30M contract extension for 2023 to avoid salary arbitration. That was the largest deal ever signed by an arbitration-eligible player in league history. Additionally, Birnbaum noted that Ohtani is making “at least $35M in endorsement earnings annually.”
Ohtani made an estimated $20M from endorsements in 2022. To compare, New York Yankees slugger and reigning American League Most Valuable Player Aaron Judge is on track to earn $4.5M in endorsements this year. Judge put pen to paper on a nine-year, $360M contract to remain with the Yankees in December.
Ohtani earned AL MVP honors for 2021 and then finished second in voting for the award behind Judge this past fall even though the 28-year-old became the first player in the World Series era to qualify for the leaderboards as both a pitcher and a hitter for the same season. Most recently, Ohtani helped Team Japan win the World Baseball Classic and struck out Angels teammate Mike Trout to clinch the tournament championship last week.
Ohtani is set to hit free agency following the 2023 season and should sign the largest contract ever given to a single player. As of the completion of the WBC, league insiders and experts were predicting that Ohtani could earn “$600M or more” from his next deal because of what he can offer to a club as it pertains to on-the-field performances and marketability.
The Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets and Chicago Cubs are routinely mentioned among the clubs that could essentially write Ohtani a blank check after the 2023 World Series.
