Shohei Ohtani was among seven players who turned down $20,325,000 qualifying offers from their former teams Tuesday and remained on free agent market to pursue more lucrative contracts. In addition to Ohtani saying no to the Los Angeles Angels, others who declined to accept were outfielder Cody Bellinger (Chicago Cubs), pitchers Josh Hader and Blake Snell (San Diego), Aaron Nola (Philadelphia), Sonny Gray (Minnesota) and third baseman Matt Chapman (Toronto). By making a qualifying offer — calculated as the average of the top 125 contracts by average annual value — a team would receive an additional selection in next July's amateur draft if a player signs elsewhere before then.
Shohei Ohtani is projected to sign a contract worth in excess of $500 million over 10 to 12 years. No other free agent will come anywhere close to that money.
Two-way star and coveted free agent Shohei Ohtani is donating about 60,000 baseball gloves to Japanese elementary schools. Ohtani, a free agent who has spent the past six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, announced Wednesday on Instagram that he's donating the youth gloves to schools throughout Japan.
"Pitching. Pitching. Pitching." A sentiment echoed by Cardinals lead executive John Mozeliak months ago remains the team's biggest priority this offseason.
Domingo Germán became a free agent Monday when he refused an outright assignment to the minor leagues from the New York Yankees, five months after he pitched Major League Baseball's 24th perfect game and three months after he entered alcohol abuse treatment. Germán pitched the perfect game at Oakland on June 28, part of a season in which he went 5-7 with a 4.56 ERA in 19 starts and one relief appearance.