Latest Baseball Insights: Ohtani's Contract & CBA News

So the Athletic is reporting that Otani will not opt out, even if Mark Walters sells the team, he will not opt out of his contract. His contract has a clause in it that states that if the Dodgers were to be sold during the length of time that Otani is under contract with LA, he would be able to opt out the following year and become a free agent. He's never going to do that. And the reason why he's not going to do that is Otani would be an idiot to do that, because the reason why, one of the reasons, a big reason why we are headed towards a lockout at the end of the CBA this year, it's because of Otani's contract, because the Dodgers, including Otani's contract, have deferred $1.1 billion. And Otani joining LA, leaving the Angels, going up the road to LA to the Dodgers from Anaheim and determining, hey, I don't want to pay taxes in LA while I'm playing. So I'm going to take a $2 million chunk and I'm going to defer everything else. And you guys are going to give me a Bobby Bonilla type contract on steroids. And I'm going to be getting paid long after I leave California from the LA Dodgers. That type of contract is going to be squarely on the negotiating table to be banned. The owners don't want that anymore. The Dodgers have become very creative with the way that they structure their deals. And after one big deal, Otani, then we saw multiple other players, whether it be, you know, and Scuba will be the next one. If he's allowed to do it before the CBA expires, Scuba will be the next one to take big money and defer it and not take as much money as he could get right away. Those contracts really have allowed the Dodgers to stockpile talent that they just keep on adding more and more players and more and more money in the future that's owed because they feel very confident that they will be able to pay those contracts and they've got the money to pay those contracts in the future. So that's why Otani is not going to be opting out anytime soon. He has no interest in opting out. Why would he ever opt out? This is a sweetheart of sweetheart deals. So yeah, no kidding. Otani says, Oh no, I'm not going to opt out. Even if the Dodgers get sold. No, I've got a deal that nobody will ever get ever again in major league baseball. And if you want to point to why we are so sure that a lockout is coming or a strike is coming, just point to the Otani contract. It's not his fault, but it kind of is his fault. He's he's the reason why we are headed to this. It stinks, but that's just kind of the way that it is right now in baseball. I don't like it. Nobody likes it. I want to play baseball next year, but by all accounts, we are going to miss at least the start of the regular season. And we could very well miss the entire season of major league baseball. In fact, there are teams that are actively preparing for no baseball in 2027. And maybe if it gets really crazy, we'll see how long it winds up lasting, but I can't imagine in June, I can't imagine in July having no baseball. Like it's bad enough to have baseball, but could you imagine having no baseball? It's kind of crazy, but it's not that wild to stop and think about it.