Nominal vs present value
Local display: $67.0m · Rebased to 2024 USD via US CPI-U
How the total breaks down
Dodgers salary. Only $2m of his $70m annual Dodgers pay is paid up front; the rest is deferred, interest-free, to 2034–2043.
Endorsements. New Balance, Porsche and a fast-growing Japanese sponsor list — the largest endorsement income in baseball history.
Impact 94
- Signed the largest contract by total value in team-sports history at $700m
- Built an endorsement income exceeding almost every other player's full on-field salary
- Made a deferred-payment structure, not just the headline number, part of the modern superstar-contract story
Ohtani's deferred-payment Dodgers deal, structured to keep the roster's payroll flexible under baseball's competitive-balance tax, turned the fine print of superstar contracts into as much of a story as the headline total. His endorsement income, more comparable to a global basketball or soccer superstar's sponsor list than to any prior baseball player's, showed that a two-way star's commercial reach could finally rival the sports with historically larger global followings.
Shohei Ohtani's 10-year, $700 million Dodgers contract, signed in December 2023, is the largest deal by total value in team-sports history, though its structure — just $2 million paid up front each year, with $68 million deferred without interest to 2034–2043 — means his actual 2024 cash salary was small. His endorsement income, estimated near $65 million from New Balance, Porsche and a growing Japanese sponsor list, made up almost all of his documented 2024 total and put him closer to basketball's or soccer's biggest commercial earners than to any prior baseball player.