After spending way too much time discussing whether the Nippon Baseball League will allow him to leave, how the posting rules should work, and who can offer the most money, we've finally gotten through the red tape and Japanese jack of all trades Shohei Ohtani is officially eligible to sign with a team.
The Rangers and Yankees can offer the most, although not by much because of the complex international signing rules. All of his offers will be under about 3.5 million dollars. I'm not sure how important any of that is anyway because if getting a ton of money was that important to Otani he would have waited another few years until he was 25 so he could get above the rookie pool.
With the amount of money being more or less a nonfactor, this race is as wide open for an international free agent has ever been. If I had to guess, I'd say teams in the AL have a better shot at signing him because they could use him as a DH to rest his arm between starts. Other than that, it's up in the air. Ohtani's made it clear he wants to be a two-way player, so how teams respond to the written proposal Ohtani's agent is making them write could very well likely be the most important thing.
Another reason being in a big market won't be important in this race: The Sixty Minutes story on Ohtani. If there's one thing I learned about him there it's that the dude cares about almost nothing but baseball. Look at these excerpts.
"No. I mean he doesn’t really do anything. He just, mellow kid, just goes back to the dorms."
"Ohtani confirmed to us that he seldom leaves the facility. Not that it keeps fans from waiting for him outside."
Does that sound like a guy who wants to go to New York? Shohei Ohtani wants to pitch, and he wants to hit. He's going to choose a team who will allow him to do both. That's the biggest difference between him and Hunter Greene and Brendan McKay. The Reds and Rays can decide what Greene and McKay will do. Ohtani can dictate his own terms.
With this in mind, there is only one completely logical place for Otani to land, and that's in Minnesota. I may sound like a huge homer, but hear me out. In the aforementioned written pitch, Falvey and Levine could say something like this: We're a young, contending team that could be in the playoffs for the next several seasons to come. Come to Minnesota and you can DH on the days you don't pitch. If that satisfies his requirements I think that at least gets the Twins into consideration.
From a logistical standpoint, throwing Ohtani into the mix doesn't complicate Molitor's job too much. I'm thinking Ohtani slides into the rotation and pitches every five days, plays DH three days and gets the day off the game before he pitches. The two days he's not in the lineup, Sano will DH and Escobar will play third.
The Twins luck in the Asian market hasn't been good. Tsuyoshi Nishioka was a complete disaster. Byung-ho Park is still technically ongoing and has been somewhat less of a disaster. But that run has to end eventually, and the possibility of a Santana-Berrios-Otani rotation is too good to not make an attempt at. Coming off of the first playoff appearance since 2010 and having a young core, this is the perfect time to take a big swing. Let's make this happen Falvine.
