Major League Baseball star Shohei Ohtani signed a record 10-year contract worth $700 million with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The deal has catapulted the Japanese player to the top of the list of the highest paid athletes in the world.
Ohtani's contract is the largest ever to be signed in baseball, surpassing Mike Trout's 12-year, $426 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels, according to CBS Sports.
Andrew Brandt, a professor of sports law at Villanova Law School, told CBS MoneyWatch Ohtani "had extraordinary leverage with many teams interested and bidding the price up."
The record deal breaks down to a salary of $70 million a year for 10 years, although Ohtani won't earn that amount annually right away due to deferrals, Brandt noted. While there is no cap on MLB salaries, like those that exist in other professional sports leagues, teams are taxed when a player's salary exceeds a threshold, as in Ohtani's case.
"It's not a cap, but a penalty for spending over a certain amount to level the playing field and achieve competitive equity among teams," Brandt said. "We don't have all the details, but he won't take the full $70 million every year to help the Dodgers with the tax. In the future, when he's no longer playing baseball, they'll still be paying him."
Athletes in other sports outearn Ohtani on an annual basis despite their overall contracts being smaller. Here are the top 10 highest paid athletes in sports today, according to CBSSports.com.
Ohtani's lucrative contract with the LA Dodgers makes him the world's highest paid athlete, according to CBS Sports.
Megan CerulloMegan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News streaming to discuss her reporting.
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