It’s been a wild week of fake reports, erroneous reports made in good faith and a whole lot of rumors as the world waited for Shohei to sign. Now he’s made up his mind and will be staying in LA. I talk about his contract and the what deferred money means in terms of luxury tax hit and then get into the “so what?” Of it all. What does this mean for the Cubs? Where do they pivot next. Let’s dive in.
UPDATE: Jon Becker corrected the calculations he had put out yesterday before I recorded. I have provided the updated link below. Nutshell - deferring $400M of Ohtani’s contract would take LA’s CBT hit to as low as $42-ish million per year, not the $60M per year I cited in the pod.
Excellent Twitter thread about deferred comp in MLB from @jonbecker_ https://x.com/jonbecker_/status/1733855093462630748?s=61&t=1Aka_sJo8QXHplWFFqMVAg
Great read on Collective Bargaining Tax (CBT) optimization (including explanation on deferred money) by @DrummeyDylan at Pitcher List https://t.co/r0wrSwMBoZ
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