Breaking: Jerry Dipoto’s Heart as Shohei Ohtani Signs with Angels

Hey, guess what? It wasn’t about the money after all. By agreeing to sign with Angels, Shohei Ohtani will earn a measly $2.32 million signing bonus in addition to a rookie salary. I mean, that’s roughly what I make as a wildly successful Cubs blogger, but it’s nothing compared to what top-tier MLB’ers or studs like Brett Taylor at Bleacher Nation pull down.

All kidding aside, this result is incredibly bittersweet for me. I truly believed that the Cubs had a shot, though I had handicapped the Angels and Mariners as the favorites a while back. My only consolation here is that, despite all the talk that the M’s would land him with their late moves for more pool money, Ohtani’s decision was not based on money.

But what was it based on? We don’t really know for sure and we’ll have to wait until the veil is lifted, but one has to assume that the ability to play alongside Mike Trout factored heavily. There’s also the matter of assessing his abilities and giving him the freedom to both pitch and hit, particularly the latter, on a regular basis.

As disappointed as I am in the resolution of this matter, I know I can’t feel nearly as bad as Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto, who just traded away three of his top 10 prospects for Dee Gordon and $2 million in international bonus money. I mean, dude. Seriously….duuuuuude. We all told you it wasn’t about the money, but you had to go balls-out anyway.

No guts, no glory though. Good on you, Dipoto.

In other news, I must now turn my obsessive coverage of Ohtani in a different direction. Hello, Bryce Harper.