The Angels have signed Shohei Ohtani to a one-year, $30M contract for 2023. That’s a record one-year deal for an arbitration eligible player. Thus there will be no arbitration hearing for him. It should also be noted though, that 2023 is also his final arbitration year. This deal does not buy out any free agency years. He will be a very highly coveted free agent next offseason if no longer term deal is made.
While this answers one thing—Ohtani will be an Angel at least for now and will be paid that $30M, there are a raft of other questions about the Angels. It’s been reported they’re up for sale—will they be sold? If so, how will that new ownership group approach the current team composition? The Angels have two of the best players in the world in Ohtani and Mike Trout and still can’t sniff the postseason. Will there be a tear down and rebuild? If Ohtani doesn’t sign a long term deal, is he traded during the season next year? If Ohtani is traded, will Trout then also be made available? If they keep both players, can they add more/better back up parts, especially better pitching beyond Ohtani? They’ve been both unlucky (Rendon) and over-optimistic (Syndergaard) with recent free agency signings. They’ve not shown a strong ability yet to build through the draft. Signing Ohtani is a good first step, but there’s still a lot of uncertainty for this franchise to address.
Fan Interference 