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After his otherworldly performance in the recent World Baseball Classic, Shohei Ohtani is being touted as one of the top athletes not just in baseball, but in the world.
The Los Angeles Angels star is 28, and has already won the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP awards. The two-way phenom also recently became the first player in history to register 100 or more strikeouts while simultaneously knocking in over 100 RBIs.
Despite the evident world-class skill that Shohei Ohtani possesses, the Angels have had a difficult time with him. Unable to reach an agreement on a long-term deal, Los Angeles inked Ohtani to a one-year deal worth $30 million.
This means that after the 2023 season finishes, he will hit the free agency market. In a recent piece for The Athletic, writer Jim Bowden shared that the Los Angeles Dodgers are the odds-on favorite to lock down the Japanese superstar.
According to Bowden, Ohtani could sign an 11-year contract with the Dodgers.
Most mainstream betting platforms have the Dodgers at +450 to sign Ohtani. After the Dodgers, the two teams most likely to ink a long-term deal with Shohei Ohtani are the New York Mets and the New York Yankees. The Big Apple-based teams have odds of +300 and +350 respectively.
In 2022, Ohtani became the first-ever player to finish in the top five in both Cy Young Award and MVP voting, although he was ultimately unsuccessful in winning both.
Over 100 million people tuned in to watch Ohtani as he led Japan to glory in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. The 3-2 victory was sealed after he struck out his Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout.
Shohei Ohtani still has to get through 2023 before the offers start to come in
It's no secret that the Los Angeles Angels have their backs against the wall this season. Having not made the playoffs since 2014, fans are quickly running out of patience.
If Ohtani can single-handedly turn the team's fortunes around, perhaps he will have more reasons to stick around Anaheim.
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