Shohei Ohtani to defer $680 million of record contract with Dodgers

Major League Baseball

Updated Dec. 13, 2023 9:43 a.m. ET

Shohei Ohtani will receive just $20 million of his $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers over the next 10 years, with $680 million payable from 2034-43.

Ohtani’s deal, agreed to Saturday, calls for annual salaries of $70 million, according to details obtained by The Associated Press. Of each year’s salary, $68 million is deferred with no interest, payable in equal installments each July 1 from 2034-43.

For purposes of the luxury tax, the contract is valued as a yearly addition to the Dodgers’ payroll of about $46 million.

Ohtani’s contract, combined with those of Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, raises the Dodgers’ total of deferred money owed to the three to $857 million from 2033-44.

Betts has a $365 million deal covering 2021-32 that includes $115 million in deferred salaries payable from 2033-44 and has the final $5 million of his signing bonus payable from 2033-35.

Freeman has a $162 million, six-year deal for 2022-27 that includes $57 million in deferred money payable from 2028-40.

Los Angeles’ high points of the deferred payments are 2038 and ’39, when the trio will be owed $83 million, and 2040, when they will be due $84 million.

By receiving the vast majority of the money when he presumably will not be living in the United States, Ohtani also figures to have a tax benefit. California’s top tax rate for residents is 13.3%.

Reporting by The Associated Press.