The terms of Shohei Ohtani’s contract emerged and baseball fans collectively lost their minds:
Shohei Ohtani's $700 million contract calls for him to be paid only $2 million a year for the next 10 seasons, with $680 million deferred until the end of the deal, sources confirm to ESPN.
The CBT hit on the contract is going to be around $46 million, a huge discount for L.A.— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 11, 2023Now, as the Athletic’s Evan Drellich and Fabian Ardaya explained, the $46 million per year payroll and luxury tax hit is still the largest average annual value in baseball.