Bombshell: Ohtani Chooses!

No one, and I mean NO ONE saw this coming.

I mean look… Shohei Ohtani wanted a smaller market and I guess he wanted the West Coast and he got it, with a not-so-great team in the Los Angeles Angels.  That’s right. And when I say not-so-great… they’re fine, 80 wins last year and no doubt Ohtani will help with that, but I didn’t expect it.  No one saw this coming.

Anyway, the New York Times writes:

“It’s official: Shohei Ohtani, the so-called Babe Ruth of Japan, will take up his new life in the United States as a member of the Los Angeles Angels.

After meeting face to face with seven major league teams, but not, surprisingly, the Yankees, Ohtani, the star pitcher and designated hitter of the Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan, announced on Friday that he had settled on the Angels, a big-market club on the West Coast. He will now set about trying to become baseball’s first two-way star since the player who inspired his nickname.

For a $20 million posting fee, a fairly modest bonus and a minimum-salary contract in 2018, the Angels get a 23-year-old player who is one year removed from being named the most valuable player of Japan’s Pacific League. The 6-foot-3, left-handed batter and right-handed pitcher gave up millions of dollars to come to the United States now instead of in two years, when he would have been a true free agent and received a contract most likely to have topped $100 million.”

So, after this, the first thing my 15 year old asked me is when we can get tickets to the Bronx to see the Yanks play the Angels.

I’m on it kid… I’m on it.