Shohei Ohtani is set to make his return to Anaheim on Tuesday after signing a contract worth $700 million to join the Dodgers this past offseason.
The moment is finally here. Los Angeles Angels fans haven’t had much to look forward to this season given how awful their team is, but Shohei Ohtani is set to make his highly-anticipated return to Anaheim on Tuesday as the second leg of the Freeway Series between the Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers kicks off at Angel Stadium.
Ohtani returned to Anaheim just before the regular season began and played in an exhibition game, but that was in a game that didn’t count. He played the Angels earlier this season at Dodger Stadium, but that’s not the same as returning to the stadium he called home for the first six seasons of his MLB career. Now, Ohtani is slated to make his real return to Anaheim, a place where he won two MVPs.
How Angels fans will react to his return remains to be seen. Not even most Angels fans expected Ohtani to show much of a willingness to re-sign with a team that hasn’t had a winning record for the better part of a decade, but still, he chose the Dodgers. There will be some cheers, and will most definitely be some boos from the Angels fans who actually bother to show up.
As if Ohtani leaving for their crosstown rivals wasn’t hard enough, Ohtani rubbed salt onto the very fresh wounds by saying he never really had a chance to return. The Angels never even gave him an offer.
Angels fans have yet another reason to be frustrated with no Shohei Ohtani offer being made
It was reported that before Ohtani signed his 10-year $700 million deal to join the Dodgers, interested teams had a chance to match that monster offer. Some did, but the Angels, in true Arte Moreno fashion, did not.
When asked whether he’d still be with the Angels if the team matched the offer, Ohtani revealed some juicy information. Not only did the Angels refuse to match, they chose to not offer him anything at all.
Balking at the structure Ohtani wanted makes some sense. Deferring most of the $700 million is tough for most owners to deal with. Still, even if the Angels didn’t want to match, not offering anything is insane.
Could the Angels not give Ohtani their best offer? The worst-case scenario that would come from doing that would be Ohtani rejecting the offer and doing what he did, signing with their crosstown rivals. Making Ohtani an offer for, say, $600 million with no deferred money to have him refuse would certainly be a better look than not offering him anything, right?
Chances are, even if the Angels matched the offer, Ohtani would still be in a Dodgers uniform. I mean, just compare the rosters. It’s easy to see why Ohtani signed where he did. Still, the fact that they not only declined the chance to match the offer, but chose to not even make an offer is really hard to comprehend.
The Angels franchise continues to be run into the ground by Arte Moreno, an owner who once again, showed how brutal he really is. Ohtani was the attraction on the Angels for years, especially with Mike Trout injured most of the time. He made the Angels a boatload of money, and when given the chance to maybe, just maybe, keep him around, you do this?
The Angels chose to not make Ohtani a single offer after choosing not to trade him at the 2023 trade deadline when they could’ve gotten a monster haul in return. Just think about that for a minute. They could’ve traded him, chose not to in a last-ditch effort to keep him long-term, and then when they actually had the chance to keep him, they chose to not give him a single offer.
Nothing about this organization makes any sense, and it stinks for the loyal Angels fans who have stuck by their team throughout all of its dysfunction. They deserve an owner who is willing to spend like a big market team should, and deserve an owner with the desire to win. Unfortunately, with Moreno, Angels fans have neither.
Now, Angels fans have to watch their former MVP flirt with 50/50 history on a Dodgers team that will make the postseason and has as good of a chance as any to win the World Series.
