Shohei Ohtani Contract, Salary & Career MLB Earnings

There’s no time like ShoTime — perhaps in the history of the game. Boardroom takes a look at the Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani contract.

Perhaps we’ve spent the first five years of Shohei Ohtani’s stateside baseball career simply counting down the days until he became the single highest-paid MLB player — or even the highest-paid in the history of the game. Such is the condition of a two-way player who pushes the radar gun to its limits and racks up strikeouts from the mound only to turn right around, raise up the lumber, and torch hanging sliders over any and all outfield walls from I-10 to the Trop and from the Bronx the Bay.

No matter how you slice it, ShoTime is money — and it’s going to reach an entirely different level once the Los Angeles Angels’ inimitable, gamebreaking two-way star reaches free agency for the very first time, threatening the record books in a whole new way.

But in the meantime, despite having never hit baseball’s open market as such, he’s still managed to be one of the best-paid operators around the diamond.

With that in mind, let’s explore the finer details of the Halos’ groundbreaking Shohei Ohtani contract for the generational icon’s final year of arbitration eligibility.

Click here to read Boardroom’s rundown of the highest-paid MLB players of 2023.

Shohei Ohtani Contract Details & Salary

Salary data via Spotrac.

Type: Arbitration-eligible (Year 3 of 3)
Years: 1
Total value: $30,000,000
Free agency: 2024

All told, this deal takes Ohtani right into free agency, which arrives as his age-29 season in 2024. And while his 2023 salary number still places him well behind mega-earners like Aaron Judge and Justin Verlander, the Angels superstar’s third and final year of arbitration eligibility finds him reaching the level of some rare superlatives, including:

The No. 1 largest salary for an arbitration-eligible player in MLB history, surpassing the $27 million Mookie Betts received from the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020
The biggest year-over-year salary jump in MLB history — he made just $5.5 million for the 2022 season
Tied for 10th on the list of highest-paid MLB players for the 2023 season, including No. 2 among designated hitters and No. 6 among pitchers

And somehow, the best is still yet to come.

If you thought this season’s free agency has been a total hoot, just wait until Japan’s transcendent export hits the open market for the very first time.