While the Atlanta Braves have been wheeling and dealing this offseason, the elephant in the room for the rest of the league was the fate of Shohei Ohtani's free agency. Yesterday, after a lot of twists and turns and drama and false reports, it was finally revealed that Ohtani was heading to the Dodgers on a massive $700 million deal.
That kind of money in the game of baseball or any sport really is completely insane. The previous largest contract in MLB belonged to Mike Trout who got over $426 million in an extension from the Angels and Shohei didn't just beat that mark, he completely demolished it. The $70 million average salary he will receive over the course of his deal (yes yes, there are deferrals...but talking strictly about how much money he is getting versus the years he is under contract here) beats the total team payrolls of several MLB teams in 2024. The $700 million total number is more than the net worth of some MLB team owners. Again, insane.
To provide some context for just how nutty Shohei's deal with the Dodgers is, let's take a look at how it stacks up against the contracts that the Braves have on their books right now.
Here are the 6 Braves contracts that combined are worth as much as Shohei's contract
First, some rules clarifications. This is strictly about guaranteed dollars and we are talking about the total values of contracts, not what is left on said contracts. Frankly, going through and subtracting previous years salaries from some of these deals is too much of a pain to deal with. That also means that club options aren't included because they aren't guaranteed money, although some of these guys will very likely get club options exercised if their current trajectories hold. Finally, there are a number of permutations of Braves contracts that can get you to Shohei's deal, this is just one example.
Anyways, on to the list.