Why Shohei Ohtani's Dodgers deal is for $460M US, not $700M

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Not since Kawhi Leonard left the NBA-champion Toronto Raptors for the Los Angeles Clippers in the summer of 2019 has a free agent held Canadian sports fans in the palm of his hand the way Shohei Ohtani did last week. Fuelled in part by the Japanese superstar's extreme secrecy, rumours that Ohtani would pull a reverse Kawhi and leave the L.A. Angels for Toronto reached a fever pitch on Friday.

Because social media abhors a vacuum, restless Blue Jays fans could go on their phones and find plenty of "information," real or imagined, to confirm their desire. A Dodgers blogger reported that Ohtani had picked Toronto? Must be a done deal! A private jet was on its way from Southern California to Toronto? Has to be Ohtani's! Jays pitcher Yusei Kikuchi, who went to high school with Ohtani, made a dinner reservation for 50 people? Pop the champagne!

We all ended up feeling pretty silly when the most coveted baseball free agent in decades chose the most obvious path possible. Rather than move 4,000 kilometres north, to a completely new country, to play for a team that hasn't won a playoff game in seven years, Ohtani decided on Saturday to stay in sunny Southern California and join an iconic franchise that averaged 106 wins over the last three seasons and was a favourite to win the World Series even before landing the greatest two-way player since Babe Ruth.

Ohtani's contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, though, was anything but obvious. Expected to command north of $500 million US and maybe up to $600 million, the two-time American League MVP instead got an astounding $700 million