Fake News

“Everyone seems to revere Ohtani as “God-like,” and while he is an amazing talent, I think any team that is determined to sign him is going to regret it very much. I believe you are going to see him start to break down at much more regular intervals. Yes, he is a freak! But he is human, and as we age, injuries are part of the process. Our bodies do not recover as quickly. Ohtani credits sleep with being a recovery mechanism, and he sleeps up to 12 hours a night! He considers sleep as a “recovery” method… and he is right! Sleep is a recovery method that works. I have successfully used it to recover quickly from back surgery and cardioversion, which successfully eliminated A-Fib. I know that it works, but it still will not make Ohtani Superman.

OK, I am going to say something, and here it is: Andrew Friedman will not give Ohtani a contract that hamstrings the Dodgers! Now, what that means exactly, I do not know. But here is what I do know: The Investment Group that bought the Dodgers paid the most ever as a group for the team (over $2 Billion Dollars), and while it is appreciating in value, investors want, no… demand, an annual return on their capital, and the Dodgers deliver that! I think that anytime the Dodgers sign a player, they have to ask, “What is the worst-case scenario if we sign this player?”

What is the worst-case scenario with Shohei? OK, (1) He never recovers enough to be a successful pitcher again (OK, you could live with that); (2) He frequently is injured and maybe only averages 110 games a year; and (3) his power production goes down. If he was making $300 Million over ten years, you might be able to live with that, but you can’t pick and choose when injuries occur. However, if he commands $400 to $500 Million over 10 to 12 years, that is a contract that will hamstring the Dodgers.

See, what Andrew Friedman and the Dodgers are doing is different than any other team in baseball: They want to be relevant and contend every year… and they have done that for the past ten years, and there is no end in sight to that dominant streak. No other team in baseball does that. The fact that they have won only one World Series and were cheated out of another one in that run is not lost on intelligent fans. The morons don’t get it. I am not going to get into that aspect right now, as you can’t tell really stupid people anything! However, I am good with that. I would rather enjoy a winning team, year after year, than win a World Series and then tank for five years! You may feel differently… and that is your prerogative! With the way the playoffs have changed, it is a crapshoot to a large degree, and if you can’t understand that… especially after this season, the lights are on, but nobody is home.

So, unless Andrew Friedman comes up with some very creative way of mitigating risk while signing Ohtani, I do not think it is prudent for the Dodgers to do so, and even if the Dodgers do sign him, I will still abide by that. I do not think it is wise.“

—Mark Timmons