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The contract that Shohei Ohtani earned from the Los Angeles Dodgers including some eye-popping figures. Once the baseball world came to grips with the 10 years and $700m, it came out that Ohtani has an interesting clause in his deal, and on Thursday, he went into some details about why he required it.
Ohtani's agreement with the Dodgers has what is being referred to as a “key-man clause.”
What that stipulates is that if either Mark Walter (chairman and controlling owner of the Dodgers) or Andrew Friedman (the team's president of baseball operations) were to leave the organization, Ohtani would have the right to opt out of his contract at the end of the season in which one of the “key men” exits.
In explaining why Ohtani and his agent Nez Balelo insisted on such a clause, the two-way superstar explained that “[e]verybody has to be on the same page to be a winning organization,” per The Athletic's Fabian Ardaya.
Dodgers' secret weapons
It also underscored the importance of Walter and Freidman to L.A.'s recent success when Ohtani said that “[t]hose two are at the top of it…I feel almost like I’m having a contract with those two guys.”
Opt-outs are increasingly common in the contracts of MLB players, or star MLB players at least. It allows the player to lock in big earnings at signing. But, in an opportunity to keep pace with other players around the league, it also allows the player to re-enter free agency in order to secure more money and a higher AAV.
Considering the success Friedman has had with the Dodgers, it doesn't seem likely he'll be on the move anytime soon. Even less likely is an owner of the money printer that is the Dodgers wanting to exit the owner's box.
In other words, don't expect Ohtani to be back in the free agency pool anytime soon.
