Here's how Shohei Ohtani's $700 million contract stacks up to Minnesota sports
Shohei Ohtani sent a shockwave across professional sports when he announced his intention to sign a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on his Instagram account on Saturday afternoon.
According to ESPN, Ohtani's contract is the largest in Major League Baseball history, surpassing Mike Trout's 12-year, $426.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels. It also surpasses Patrick Mahomes's 10-year, $450 million contract as the largest contract for an athlete in major professional sports.
Ohtani's yearly salary of $70 million also surpasses the previous record set by Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, who received an average annual value of $43.3 million from the New York Mets last season, and is more than the Opening Day payrolls of the Baltimore Orioles ($60.9 million) and Oakland Athletics ($56.9 million).
In Minnesota, it's hard to comprehend how much the Dodgers will pay Ohtani.
It starts with the Minnesota Twins, who had a franchise-record $156 million Opening Day payroll last season. After the loss of roughly $55 million (or 78 percent of Ohtani's average salary) in television revenue at the end of their contract with Bally Sports North, Dan Hayes of The Athletic projects that the Twins could have a 2024 Opening Day payroll in the range of $125 million to $140 million.
The good news is that if the Twins come out on the high end, their payroll would be twice the amount of Ohtani's annual salary for next season. The bad news is that Ohtani's salary dwarfs some of the largest numbers in franchise history.
Kirby Puckett once signed the largest free-agent contract in MLB history by agreeing to a five-year, $30 million contract to stay with the Twins in 1992. Ohtani's contract is not only twice the length of Puckett's blockbuster deal but the total value of Puckett's contract is just under 4 percent of the $700 million Ohtani will receive from the Dodgers.
Joe Mauer and Carlos Correa are also no match for Ohtani's mega-deal. Ohtani's contract is over three times the amount of money in Joe Mauer's eight-year, $184 million extension signed in 2010 and over twice as much as the $270 million Correa could earn if the Twins exercise a four-year, $70 million vesting option on top of the six-year, $200 million contract he signed last January.
Even more staggering is that Ohtani's $700 million contract is more than the two free-agent deals that fell through during Correa's free-agency tour last winter combined.
Correa agreed to a 13-year, $350 million contract with the San Francisco Giants and a 12-year, $315 million deal with the New York Mets before both were nullified due to concerns over his physical.
Ohtani's average salary is also insane compared to the numbers of Twins' past. Kent Hrbek was the highest-paid player on the 1987 Twins after making $1.3 million (or 1.8 percent of Ohtani's annual salary) on the way to winning the World Series.
The $70 million number is also more than the $22.4 million Opening Day payroll of the 1991 Twins that won the World Series and the $40.2 million payroll of the 2002 Twins, who are the last Twins team to advance to the American League Championship Series.
Even Target Field is no match for Ohtani as its original $480 million construction budget is well under what Ohtani will make over the next 10 years. The $29.5 million project to replace the scoreboards at Target Field is only 42 percent of Ohtani's average salary.
But while Ohtani's contract highlights the economic issues in MLB, other Minnesota sports franchises shouldn't feel left out.
- Ohtani's annual salary is double the one-year, $35 million contract extension that Kirk Cousins signed in March 2022.
- Ohtani's total contract is more than the $600 million the Wilf Family paid to buy the Vikings from Red McCombs in 2005.
- Ohtani's total contract is 5.5 times more than the six-year, $126 million contract extension Kevin Garnett signed with the Timberwolves in 1997.
- Ohtani would still make more money than Anthony Edwards if you doubled his five-year, $260 million Supermax contract extension signed last July.
- Ohtani's contract is 7.5 times the amount of money in Ryan Suter and Zach Parise's 13-year, $98 million contracts signed in July 2012.
- Kirill Kaprizov's $9 million average annual value is just 12 percent of Ohtani's annual salary.
- Craig Leipold bought the Wild for $250 million in 2008, which is 35 percent of Ohtani's total contract.
- Ohtani's total contract is more than the construction costs of Huntington Bank Stadium ($303.3 million), Allianz Field ($200 million) and the Xcel Energy Center ($170 million) combined.
So the next time you're forking out big money to take a family of four to watch the Twins, consider what you're paying for. It's not every day you get to see a guy worth three professional sports stadiums and the entire Athletics payroll over the last 10 years playing in your backyard ... and someday you could tell your grandkids that you saw Ohtani in person.
