The Los Angeles Angels continue their offseason following the loss of Shohei Ohtani to the Los Angeles Dodgers on a 10-year, $700 million contract.
The former Angels franchise player ended a wild free agency process by signing a record deal with their Freeway Series rival. Ohtani joining the Dodgers creates one of baseball’s best trios as he’s alongside Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
Ohtani is said to have offered every team a similar contract structure, with heavy deferrals, but the Angels weren’t among those to agree to those terms, per Jack Harris of the L.A. Times:
According to multiple people with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly, Moreno wouldn’t match the 10-year, $700-million deal that Ohtani eventually signed with the Dodgers.
The Angels stood pat with Mike Trout, declining to trade him, and have a number of young players who’ll make up a significant portion of their starting roster. Without Ohtani in the mix, general manager Perry Minasian has a new direction in which to approach the club’s aspirations.
Ohtani maintained he wanted stability, a winning environment and strong culture. Singing on with the Dodgers provides him with all three, unfortunately leaving the Angels with two huge holes in their roster.
Shohei Ohtani’s career with Angels
Joining the team prior to the 2018 season, Ohtani had a fair amount of hype attached as a huge international signing by the Angels.
In his six-year career, Ohtani slugged 171 home runs while posting a 148 OPS+ in 2483 at-bats. His final slash line of .273/.366/.556 carried him on the offensive end to two unanimous American League MVP Awards.
On the mound, Ohtani went 38-19, 3.01 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 11.4 strikeouts per nine. He posted a .200 batting average allowed with a .612 on-base plus slugging.
He cemented a one-two combination with Trout that, when healthy, was as good as any duo in MLB history.
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