Several Angels insiders suggested superstar Shohei Ohtani would have stayed with the Angels if the team had accepted the $700 million, 97 percent guaranteed offer it offered to the four finalists. The Dodgers, Giants and Blue Jays are known to have accepted championship offers, but the Angels did not.
“That’s the word,” Angels All-Star Tyler Anderson said. “He’s obviously done very well. [in Anaheim]”If he wants to have a Hall of Fame career, obviously, I think the best way for him to do that is to stay with one team. He was obviously comfortable there, with the numbers and all the things he accomplished. I think that’s probably the case.”
Many other Angels officials agreed, calling Ohtani a “loyal man” and a “creature of habit.”
Some Angels insiders regret not trading Ohtani at last year’s deadline even more. What was unknown at the time was that few internally the team’s owners were expected to agree to the biggest contract in baseball history after already paying two players in Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon more than $35 million in annual salaries.
We’ll never know if Ohtani would have stayed. After all, he’s played just as well 45 miles north with the Dodgers, who give him a better chance to win.
When Juan Soto mentioned Ohtani as a player he’d like to team up with, was that a hint that the Dodgers were in the running?
While Soto has by all accounts enjoyed his time in pinstripes and some believe he would prefer the East Coast, the Post reported that he was in serious negotiations with the Padres last summer but those talks were halted when the late Padres owner Peter Seidler fell ill.
Don’t get me wrong, of course, it mostly depends on the contract.
