Have you ever known exactly what you want for dinner, but you ask your friend/significant other/family what they want before eventually getting them to agree with you? That’s pretty what what Shohei Ohtani did in choosing the Dodgers. Or maybe you’d prefer to liken it to LeBron James taking his talents to South Beach. The next time I go to St. Elmo, I’m going to ask if I can pay for 97% percent of my steak several years later.
While I do believe Ohtani was legitimately interested in hearing what other teams had to say, the extent to which the unique structure of his deal helps the Dodgers is pretty telling.