Any Giants fans hoping the team can rectify its recent superstar-less offseason by landing two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani won't be encouraged by a recent poll of MLB players.
The Athletic asked about 100 players who the current Los Angeles Angels star, slated to hit free agency after this season, will play for in 2024, and 57.2 percent picked the team San Francisco certainly didn't want to hear -- the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“The Mets and Padres will get in a bidding war, and the Dodgers will swoop in," one unnamed American League player told The Athletic.
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In fact, the Giants aren't listed at all in The Athletic's poll, with 11.4 percent of players choosing the Angels, 7.2 percent naming the San Diego Padres, 7.2 percent predicting the New York Mets and 6.3 percent guessing the New York Yankees.
While that still leaves 10.7 percent of the poll's votes unaccounted for, it can be assumed San Francisco, if named, didn't account for the entire remaining percentage. The Giants are almost guaranteed to show interest, however, after offseason sagas with both Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa ended without signed contracts before the 2023 MLB season's start.
Ohtani will be one of the biggest names ever to hit MLB free agency, and former Giants general manager Bobby Evans recently estimated the superstar's next contract could reach the $500 million value that has been floated.
The pitching, slugging 28-year-old originally signed with the Angels in December 2017 as an international free agent out of Japan and quickly established himself as one of baseball's biggest talents, winning the AL Rookie of the Year Award in 2018 and the AL MVP award in 2021. He also finished second and fourth for the MVP and Cy Young awards, respectively, in 2022.
San Francisco Giants
This season, Ohtani currently leads all MLB players in home runs (24), RBI (58), slugging percentage (.632) and OPS (1.016), and his opponent average on the mound (.178) is best in the league while currently posting top-five numbers in strikeouts (105).
In short, Ohtani's skill set is a rarity and it would be no surprise if he did indeed fetch a half-billion-dollar deal. Teams certainly will be lining up to try and woo him, and one MLB player put it best.
“Who has the most money?” one pitcher asked The Athletic.
But as the Giants found out this past offseason, sometimes money isn't all it takes to land a star.