The 2023 Major League Baseball season still is young, but that hasn’t stopped fans from fans fantasizing about Shohei Ohtani on their team in 2024.
The Angels star is expected to enter free agency after this season, despite Los Angeles’ hopes the 28-year-old stays. Ohtani has not made the playoffs in his MLB career, and it’s possible he stays if the Angels reach the postseason in his sixth season.
But if he does leave, it would open up a massive arms race for a generational player. Experts predict a large price tag, which only a handful of teams could offer.
The Yankees would be among those teams that could meet those demands. New York made Aaron Judge one of the highest-paid players in MLB when it re-signed him to a $360 million deal, and Gerrit Cole is the highest-paid pitcher in the league.
The Bronx Bombers have made previous attempts at acquiring Ohtani, so they might pounce on another opportunity if he becomes available.
“That would be great for us if we were able to land him,” Nestor Cortes said Monday, per the New York Post’s Greg Joyce. “But he’s going to be really expensive, so we’ll see how that turns out.”
The All-Star pitcher added: “See what Judge gets and then you gotta see what (Kevin) Gausman or somebody else gets. (Ohtani is) a top-five pitcher and he’s a top-five hitter. Pretty crazy.”
Ohtani’s elite two-way abilities are why a price tag could reach massive levels. The allure of acquiring such a star is probably why fans are finding any little thing as a recruitment method — like Boston Red Sox fans pointing out Ohtani’s friendship with Masataka Yoshida and the Angels star’s enjoyment of pitching at Fenway Park.
Yankees fans won’t be above that when Los Angeles takes on New York on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.
