Shohei Ohtani announced over the weekend that he will be playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers for the next decade. The deal will be worth $700 million, which is a lot of money in the same way that Mike Trout’s $426 million extension with that other Los Angeles team is a lot of money.
But it’s not just a lot of money in raw dollars. It’s a lot of money compared to other contracts in baseball, and it’s a lot of money compared to the other contracts in American sports. The biggest contract in the NHL? Alex Ovechkin’s extension with the Washington Capitals for $124 million.