Shohei Ohtani’s first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers has unfolded like a dream—one so complete, it feels like the kind of success most players might hope to achieve over an entire career.
In his debut year, Ohtani not only helped deliver a championship and earned National League MVP honors, but also became the first player in MLB history to hit 50 or more home runs and steal 50 or more bases in a single season. And remarkably, he’s done all this without yet returning to the mound.
Ohtani, who owns a career 3.01 ERA over 481.1 MLB innings, is still ramping up his recovery to pitch again. The full two-way version of Ohtani has yet to be unleashed in Dodger blue.
Shohei Ohtani’s Agent On Bigger Deal With Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers signed Ohtani to a record-shattering 10-year, $700 million deal in December 2023 after six seasons with the Angels. At the recent Sportico Invest West conference, Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo, revealed the contract could have been even longer—stretching up to 15 years and keeping Ohtani on the roster through age 44.
“We could have went to 13, 14, 15 years,” Balelo said. “But Shohei wanted to always kind of keep the integrity of where he’s at as a player. He just didn’t want to have the end of his storybook career tail off and then on year 13, 14 and 15, it’s just like, ‘Who is this guy? You can’t even run down first.’ And he’s not a guy anymore.”
The foresight paid off. With Ohtani’s impact already historic, and the $700 million deal setting the record for the highest average annual value in MLB history, Balelo made it clear there’s no second-guessing.
“We wouldn’t do anything different,” he said. “He won a championship. He went to the right team. No regrets.”
While Ohtani’s contract once stood as the richest in baseball history, it has since been eclipsed—Juan Soto recently signed a 15-year, $765 million deal with the New York Mets.