Dodgers News: Angels Player Compares Shohei Ohtani’s Free Agency to Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce

Shohei Ohtani is an international superstar. Not only is he arguably the most popular person in Japan, but he’s slowly becoming an icon in America, too.

It’s not often baseball players become famous outside of the game, but Ohtani has the talent, charisma and contract to do just that.

Ohtani’s free agency was one of the wildest offseason storylines the league has seen in a while, and in the end, he decided to leave the Los Angeles Angels to join the Dodgers.

With spring training opening up for the rest of the league on Wednesday (the Dodgers started early due to their Opening Series in Korea), we’re getting some of our first quotes from Angels players discussing Ohtani’s departure.

On Tuesday, Angels pitcher Patrick Sandoval spoke to Sam Blum of The Athletic regarding Ohtani’s free agency.

“I equated it to the Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift stuff. It was everywhere,” Sandoval said. “But I’m happy for him, he got what he wanted. You like to see your friends succeed. Wish he was doing it with us, but I’m happy he got what he got.”

Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift have taken over the NFL world, with Swift becoming as big a deal as the Kansas City Chiefs, themselves.

While Ohtani may not be as big as Swift, he’s definitely the MLB equivalent at this point in terms of popularity.

Any time the Dodgers post a clip of Ohtani on social media, it goes viral. For that matter, anytime Ohtani does anything and it gets to social media, it goes viral.

Fans are anxiously waiting to get any Ohtani content they can, similar to how fans wanted to see Swift at the Chiefs game all season long.

With the NFL season now over, all attention can be turned to baseball season. And with Ohtani on a good team for the first time in his career, his popularity, as well as the sport’s popularity, should go way up.

Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports