When Shohei Ohtani inked a 10-year contract reportedly worth a record $700 million to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers, it sent the baseball world in a state of shock and euphoria. Mike Mulligan and David Haugh speculated on such as well and reacted to the events of the previous few days on Monday morning.
Specifically on Friday, social media users noticed a private jet flying from Anaheim to Toronto, prompting people to assume that it was Ohtani traveling to the country to officially sign with the Toronto Blue Jays. It turns out that the plane transported Shark Tank investor and entrepreneur Robert Herjavec and his children back from a vacation in Southern California, much to the disappointment of fans who were hoping that it was Ohtani making his decision.
Instead, Ohtani announced the news of his agreement with the Dodgers on Instagram on Saturday afternoon, completing a protracted pursuit to land the two-time American League MVP that reports say lasted over a year.
Moreover, it brought inaccurate reports to light from several venerated members of the media who have been covering MLB for many years. MLB Network insider Jon Morosi in particular confirmed that Ohtani was on the plane, but later issued an apology for promulgating misinformation.
“It was a crazy Friday in Major League Baseball media,” Haugh said on Mully & Haugh on 670 The Score. “I wonder how much Ohtani’s agents worked and manipulated the process behind the scenes; maybe fed some respected reporters some bad info to get the Dodgers thinking that the Blue Jays were going to be all in.”
According to an in-depth story from Tom Verducci at Sports Illustrated, the Dodgers were uncertain whether or not the team would land Ohtani on Friday night. It also claims that the team saw the report of the private jet flying to Toronto and decided to go all-in by increasing their offer. Although much of the remuneration is expected to be deferred, Ohtani is now projected to make $11.7 million per month, $432,099 per game and $50.01 per second under this new deal.
“I got to tell you the idea that they used national baseball writers to jack up the price is pretty wild,” co-host Mike Mulligan said. “They fed information to people that they were headed to Toronto. I think that’s been reported or that’s the conspiracy theory, right?”
The discussion on the Chicago sports radio program continued to surmise as to why the Chicago Cubs did not land Ohtani. The team had been reported as being involved in the bidding process, although much of the information surrounding the free agency has been shrouded in secrecy. As a former reporter for the Chicago Tribune, Mike Mulligan is familiar with having to verify information.
At the moment, the Dodgers have yet to officially announce the deal that Ohtani is signing with them, which could indicate that the deal is pending the completion of a physical. Once everything becomes official, the Dodgers will officially have a lineup featuring three players that have won a combined five Most Valuable Player awards, along with plenty of depth up and down the roster.
“I think that the Dodgers always seemed to be the team that he was going to land on,” Haugh said regarding Ohtani earlier in the segment. “It seemed inevitable from the beginning. We built up our hope here; it seemed a little bit remote all the time. You kind of knew it, but it was fun to dream a little bit because of how good he is.”
“I just think that the Cubs probably stopped bidding on this; I’m guessing $550 [million] tops, something like that,” Mike Mulligan added. “That was one of the rumors. It starts going up and you kind of must know at that point that if you jump in and you pay more than the next guy, you’re going to get him.”
