Dodgers Co-Owner Defends Shohei Ohtani Contract
Todd Boehly, a partner in the Guggenheim Baseball Management team that owns the Dodgers, recently sat down for a lengthy interview with Forbes.
The site reports that Boehly personally owns a 20 percent stake in the team, in addition to another seven percent through Eldridge Industries, an investment firm he co-founded and still oversees as CEO.
Since joining the ownership group in 2012, the Dodgers have spent freely, immediately trading for high-priced stars like Adrián González and Hanley Ramírez during their first summer of ownership. The result? The Dodgers have by far baseball’s best winning percentage over the last decade.
Since 2013, the Dodgers have made 11 consecutive playoff appearances and won the World Series in 2020. Forbes now values the team at $4.8 billion — 140 percent more than Walter and Boehly’s group paid for it.
Boehly was also part of the decision-making group behind Shohei Ohtani’s massive 10-year, $700 million contract, which he defended by saying “Ohtani cares a lot about winning and we care a lot about winning, so our passion and his passion lined up really nicely.”
The signing of Ohtani also catapulted the visibility of the Dodgers into another dimension.
“On average, 9 million people watched the five World Series games last year. We had roughly 70 million people view Ohtani’s press conference. He sold more jerseys than [Miami soccer star Lionel] Messi in the 48 hours after the announcement.”
— Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly, via Forbes
By deferring $680 million and agreeing to collect $2 million per year, Ohtani’s contract is so team-friendly that it enabled the Dodgers to go out and sign more players to put around him like Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Teoscar Hernández.
Boehly knows that the Dodgers will be called every name under the sun for the next 10 years, at least, but it’s all part of the business.
Right now, business is very good.
Photo Credit: Jonathan Hui-USA TODAY Sports
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Something about this deferred payment deal sounds fishy!!!!
Make sure he gets taxed for his deferred income after he leaves the Dodgers and move back to Japan in 10 years!!!!!
Otherwise he’ll have more than the FBI looking at him!