With Shohei Ohtani Off the Board, MLB Free Agency Can Finally Start in Earnest
The entire baseball world – reporters, players and executives alike – have been waiting with bated breath to find out where Shohei Ohtani would wind up.
Now that the two-way superstar is headed to the Los Angeles Dodgers, everyone can finally exhale and get down to business.
Ohtani has essentially been keeping the entire sport hostage since November, when he officially hit the open market. Looking past Ohtani and his camp going out of their way to make sure his free agency took place behind closed doors, his drawn-out negotiating tactics resulted in a pretty sleepy start to the offseason.
Sure, there have been a few big deals here or there. The Philadelphia Phillies brought back ace Aaron Nola, while Sonny Gray, Eduardo Rodriguez and Kenta Maeda landed with the St. Louis Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks and Detroit Tigers, respectively. The New York Yankees also pulled off a massive trade to bring Juan Soto over from the San Diego Padres.
But for all the moves that have been made, there are even more that have simply been waiting in the wings.
Some of the top pitchers on the market – from two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell to Japanese stars Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga – made it clear that they wouldn't be signing anywhere until Ohtani set the market. The same went for the next-best free agent slugger in Cody Bellinger.
Ohtani's big-market suitors, namely the San Francisco Giants, New York Mets and Chicago Cubs, hardly made any moves in an attempt to retain flexibility should he decide to join their club. Now that he has officially rejected them, those teams are now free to spend that money and fill those holes with some of the other talented players looking for new homes.
Snell, Yamamoto, Imanaga and Bellinger are the cream of the crop, but there are other valuable free agents who are now more likely to move towards deals in the coming days and weeks.
Jordan Montgomery, Lucas Giolito, Marcus Stroman and Clayton Kershaw make up the second tier of starting pitchers, and each of them will have interesting markets to keep an eye on. JD Martinez, Matt Chapman, Jorge Soler, Teoscar Hernández, Whit Merrifield, Rhys Hoskins and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. are among the top veteran sluggers who remain available.
Cuban right-hander Yariel Rodriguez, Korean center fielder Jung Hoo Lee and Japanese closer Yuki Matsui are among the top international free agents outside of Yamamoto and Imanaga. Josh Hader is expected to fetch a big-time deal of his own coming off his fourth 30-save season.
And then there's the trade market, which could feature All-Star pitchers like Dylan Cease, Corbin Burnes and Tyler Glasnow. Rumors have also swirled around Randy Arozarena, Jorge Polanco and Jonathan India, to name a few.
The Yankees and Dodgers, after making the two biggest deals of the offseason to this point, could continue to either add or shed salary, with all eyes now shifting towards Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, Chris Taylor and Max Muncy. The Toronto Blue Jays could also shop Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or Bo Bichette after missing out on Ohtani.
The MLB offseason is never going to match the high-speed intensity of the NBA offseason, which features the draft at the end of June and a massive free agent rush that takes place over the first 10 days of July. The baseball calendar and its executives just work differently, and that's fine.
But to anyone who got bored waiting for a steady stream of real, tangible moves across the league, your patience is about to be rewarded.
The floodgates will be opening shortly.
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