What baseball player made 700 million a year?

Shohei Ohtani, a Japanese professional baseball designated hitter and pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB), made a 10-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers worth $700 million.

According to an ESPN report, the baseball hitter has signed the major deal in professional sports in December 2023. In his first season after joining the Los Angeles Angels, he won his third MVP award and first World Series title.

A year later, Juan Soto, a Dominican professional baseball outfielder for the New York Mets of MLB, signed a 15-year contract for $765 million with the New York Mets.

Deferred payments worth $680 million were included in Ohtani’s deal. The delays are responsible for reducing to about $461 million for the luxury tax system in baseball. If there had been no deferrals, an average of $70 million a year.

As Ohtani is a top endorser of Major League Baseball (MLB, a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams), his earnings jumped to $100 million this year from $65 million in 2024.

Why is Shohei Ohtani so special?

Shohei Ohtani is so great that he essentially fills multiple roles at elite levels. He starts games as a pitcher and fires 100+ mph pitches, but also hits incredibly well and has elite speed. The sport has not seen anything like this in about a century.