Former MLB star believes Shohei Ohtani's 'secrecy' helped him secure $700,000,000 deal: "The strategy worked perfectly"

Shohei Ohtani kept matters about his free agency a complete secret that was out of bounds for fans and team executives across the country.

Unless he put pen to paper and signed a record-breaking $700 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, everything was kept well beyond the reach of the general audience.

The Japanese superstar’s deal with the Dodgers surpasses the previous benchmark set by Mike Trout’s 12-year, $426.5 million contract with the LA Angels in 2019. In fact, even if the contracts of Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper were combined, they would still fall short of Ohtani's deal.

Former MLB star-turned-podcaster Trevor Plouffe recently spoke about Shohei Ohtani’s free agency and the way Ohtani and his team kept everything a secret affair until matters were official.

"Ohtani's secrecy about his free agency paid off big time" - @TalkinBaseball_

In the Talkin’ Baseball livestream, Plouffe spoke about how Ohtani’s free agency negotiations were kept under wraps by his team. He highlighted how it worked out in favor of the two-way phenom.

“We had a lot of talk about how his free agency was gonna go and from the get-go we heard it’s gonna be a secret," Plouffe said. "Teams aren’t gonna be leaking information and if you do, it’s gonna be held against you. The strategy worked perfectly. We didn’t hear one number reported. Think about that.”

“For everyone who was complaining about it, this was a different type of free agency than we’ve ever seen," Plouffe added. "There was no leaks about numbers, there was none of the reporters putting stuff out there."

"They were getting mad because they didn’t have stories. But it worked. If this was a regular free agency, and they didn’t approach it the way they did, I don’t think he approaches this number and I also don’t think he gets to announce it the way he did.”

Shohei Ohtani’s arrival could help the Dodgers convert regular-season dominance to playoff success

The regular season looked great for the NL West-winning Dodgers last term. They have won 100+ games in each of the last three seasons but haven't advanced beyond the National League Championship Series in any one of them.

Shohei Ohtani’s arrival could certainly help the Dodgers change that. Ohtani, for all his achievements, has yet to play an MLB postseason game.

On paper, the Dodgers should be able to go all the way with the two-way superstar in their lineup. Only time will tell if they genuinely would or would not.