What’s next for the Chicago Cubs after Shohei Ohtani agrees to a record 10-year, $700M deal with the LA Dodgers?

The Chicago Cubs won’t be welcoming Shotime to Wrigley Field.

Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers have agreed to a 10-year, $700 million contract, the biggest in Major League Baseball history. The Cubs were among the teams vying to sign Ohtani but for the second time fell short in their efforts to land him.

Ohtani, 29, announced the deal on Instagram on Saturday, and his agent, Nez Balelo, confirmed the terms of the contract.

“This is a unique, historic contract for a unique, historic player,” Balelo said in a statement.

The Cubs were among seven finalists to sign Ohtani in 2017 when he made the jump from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball to MLB. In the lead-up to signing with the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani also met with the Cubs, Seattle Mariners, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants.

At the time the Cubs were coming off their third consecutive year of reaching at least the National League Championship Series and had won the World Series in 2016.

“We had things rolling pretty well at that point,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer recalled last month of their 2017 recruitment. “It doesn’t surprise me that he took a meeting with us even though us and Texas were the only teams not on the West Coast. That’s why we were outliers. … We had it rolling and I think he was intrigued.”

The Cubs, though, faced a big disadvantage. Ohtani made clear he wanted to pitch and be a designated hitter, but the DH did not yet exist in the NL.

“We knew that was always going to be an uphill climb,” Hoyer said. “And at that time, there were a lot of questions about whether he was hurt or not. I can’t remember the details anymore of how many innings he had missed at the end of the year, but there were definitely questions about whether he was hurt, would he need Tommy John, so the ability to DH as opposed to play outfield was something that was discussed at that time.

“It doesn’t surprise me that at the end he picked an AL team, but you wish you could roll back the clock and take a shot at it again.”

Major League Baseball’s free agency was largely on hold waiting for Ohtani’s decision.

Ohtani’s contract total is 64% higher than baseball’s previous record, a 12-year, $426.5 million deal for Angels outfielder Mike Trout that began in 2019. Ohtani’s $70 million average salary is 62% above the previous high of $43.3 million shared by pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander with deals they struck when signing with the New York Mets.

The agreement includes unprecedented deferred money that will lower the amount it counts toward the Dodgers’ luxury-tax payroll, according to the Associated Press.

“To all the fans and everyone involved in the baseball world, I apologize for taking so long to come to a decision,” Ohtani said in his Instagram post announcing his decision. “To all Dodgers fans, I pledge to always do what’s best for the team and always continue to give it my all to be the best version of myself.”

This is perhaps the largest contract in sports history, topping highs believed to be set by soccer stars Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé.

Ohtani joins a lineup that includes 2018 AL MVP Mookie Betts and 2020 NL MVP Freddie Freeman. The Dodgers won the NL West this year for the 10th time in 11 seasons before the Arizona Diamondbacks swept them in the division series in October.

The Dodgers begin the 2024 season against the San Diego Padres on March 20-21 in Seoul, South Korea.

Ohtani’s decision came six years and one day after he first agreed to his deal with the Angels.

Ohtani has redefined modern baseball since he chose the Angels as his first major-league team. Nobody has come close to matching his simultaneous achievements at the plate and on the mound, becoming one of the majors’ elite players in both roles whenever healthy. Along the way, he’s become one of the most marketable athletes in the world, sure to boost ticket sales, TV ratings and sponsorship revenues wherever he goes.

He was a unanimous AL MVP in 2021 and 2023 — he finished second in 2022 — winning this year despite injuring his elbow in late August and an oblique muscle in early September.

Ohtani has a .274 average with 171 homers, 437 RBIs and 86 stolen bases along with a 39-19 record with a 3.01 ERA and 608 strikeouts in 481 2/3 innings. Ohtani has a 34.7 WAR, per Baseball Reference.

The Angels are a perennial also-ran, both in the standings and in the Los Angeles market, but they won Ohtani’s services in late 2017 partly by promising him the freedom to train and to play however he wanted. Ohtani immediately dazzled in 2018, batting .285 with 22 homers and 61 RBIs as a designated hitter and going 4-2 with a 3.31 ERA and 63 strikeouts.

Ohtani won the AL Rookie of the Year award that season despite making just one pitching appearance after early June because of an injured elbow ligament that required Tommy John surgery after the season. Ohtani made just two mound appearances in the next two years while continuing to play as the Angels’ DH.

When his arm was finally healthy in 2021, Ohtani put together a season for the ages.

He won the AL MVP award with 46 homers and 100 RBIs while going 9-2 with a 3.18 ERA on the mound. He improved as a pitcher in 2022, going 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP while still driving in 95 runs but finished behind Aaron Judge in the MVP voting after the Yankees star hit an AL record 62 homers.

After winning the MVP award in the World Baseball Classic in March while leading Japan to victory — he struck out Trout to end the tournament — Ohtani maintained his two-way magnificence this year, hitting 44 homers with a career-high 1.066 OPS while going 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA before tearing his elbow ligament again on Aug. 23. He didn’t hit after Sept. 3 because of the strained right oblique.

Along with his elbow injuries, Ohtani’s transcendent success has come with another significant damper: He has never made the playoffs or even played on a winning team in the majors. Owner Arte Moreno’s Angels haven’t won more than 80 games or finished higher than third in the AL West during his tenure alongside Trout, a three-time AL MVP, and a perennially disappointing cast of supporting players.

Ohtani earned $42,269,259 in his six seasons with the Angels.

After missing out again on Ohtani, who seemed destined to join the front-runner Dodgers, the Cubs can move on and start upgrading their roster. Star players remain available in free agency or through a trade. Among the most notable is 25-year-old Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but it could come down to a two-team battle between the New York Yankees and Mets.

Yamamoto’s posting window remains open until 4 p.m. Jan. 4, though he is expected to sign well before that date.

A reunion with outfielder Cody Bellinger can’t be ruled out, either, until he signs. He remains a fit if the length of the contract makes sense for the Cubs. Bellinger, 28, enjoyed a bounce-back season after signing with the Cubs last offseason. The 2019 NL MVP hit .307 with 26 home runs and 97 RBIs in 130 games last season.

Another pair of Scott Boras clients — first baseman Rhys Hoskins and third baseman Matt Chapman — would address positional needs and add power to the Cubs lineup.

Finding another proven starter would create more stability for the pitching staff, especially if the Cubs prefer to avoid multiyear expensive deals for relievers. Left-handers Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery are the top available free-agent starters besides Yamamoto. Tampa Bay Rays right-hander Tyler Glasnow and Cleveland Guardians right-hander Shane Bieber also make a lot of sense in a trade to the Cubs.

Those other options, however, don’t represent the same star power as Ohtani.

Associated Press contributed.

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