The Major League Baseball trade deadline had a direct impact on Shohei Ohtani's historic free agency. Here's the details.
After the Los Angeles Angels decided not to trade Shohei Ohtani at the August 1 deadline, it had a direct impact on the 2023 season — and also his free agency.
Had the Angels traded Ohtani, there was an extremely slim possibility that he would have re-signed in Anaheim. But the Angels were aggressive in upgrading the roster, adding Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Mike Moustakas, C.J. Cron, Randal Grichuk, Eduardo Escobar and Dominic Leone — and put themselves firmly in the postseason hunt.
Did Angels odds of signing Shohei Ohtani improve?
This is exactly what Ohtani wants. He wants to win. He wants to be in the postseason. And if the Angels do make the playoffs, the odds of him returning increase.
Not trading Ohtani was a gamble by general manager Perry Minasian and owner Arte Moreno. If he leaves, all they will get back in return is a draft pick. Had they traded him, they would have gotten a haul of prospects.
But the Angels want to retain Ohtani, and their trade deadline improved the chances of him staying in Anaheim.
New York Mets
While the Angels' odds of signing Ohtani in the offseason improved, the same cannot be said for the New York Mets.
By trading Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, with Scherzer indicating that the Mets are building toward 2025 and 2026, that would make an Ohtani-to-Mets signing increasingly unlikely. It all comes back to his desire to win. He will not want to sign with a team that is transitioning or unlikely to compete in the postseason, especially during his ages 30 and 31 seasons.
Entering the season, the Mets looked like potentially serious players in the Ohtani sweepstakes. Owner Steve Cohen's willingness to spend, and spend big, warranted that. But now they look like a team that will be sitting on the sidelines this winter, not only for Ohtani, but any of the big free agents.
Los Angeles Dodgers
Everything that the Los Angeles Dodgers did this past offseason was geared toward having payroll flexibility to sign Shohei Ohtani in the 2024 offseason. And at the trade deadline, it was continually stated by numerous rival executives that the Dodgers covet Ohtani.
They were not able to land him at the deadline, of course. But the Dodgers did not add any big salaries to the payroll and maintain the flexibility to add Ohtani on a contract that some baseball people peg to land anywhere between $500-600 million.
When Ohtani becomes a free agent, the Dodgers will be significant players. And they could be the early favorites to sign arguably the best player in baseball history.