A Shohei Ohtani trade is too rich for the Cleveland Guardians in every way

If the LA Angels do trade Shohei Ohtani the Cleveland Guardians need to sit this one out.

Shohei Ohtani is among the most talented players the game has ever seen. He’s not the best hitter or the best pitcher but literally no one, and I mean no one is even in the Top 500 as both a pitcher and a hitter in all of the major leagues.  Ohtani is. So while he’s a 2.50 hitter and a guy with a 3.28 career ERA, you can’t find one another player in the game currently who’s doing just that. He’d be a great fit for the Cleveland Guardians.

Not only would he be valuable as a player but he’d be someone that the team could seriously make a mint on due to his international popularity. The problem with Ohtani is the Los Angeles Angels fully intend on getting all they can for him.

The rumor is that the Angles want a club’s top four prospects for the two-way star, and that wouldn’t be a terrible idea on its own. If you could give me Ohtani for five or six years minimum, I’d give you my top four guys, sure.

Except the Guardians wouldn’t get him for five or six years. They’d be getting him for 18 months.

The Angels asking price and Shohei Ohtani’s contract eliminates the Cleveland Guardians from contention

So here’s the thing, baseball has a spending issue but isn’t with teams not spending money, it’s on teams overpaying for guys. I can come up with a dozen examples of “superstars” who are such in name only and are getting outproduced by guys making 1/12th the money.

Teams overpay for guys and it usually backfires. Ohtani is going to get overpaid and I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re talking in the range of $35 or $40 million a year. For a player who’s only played 110 games once in his career, that’s way too much money.

No matter how good he is. Now, I’d be willing to ride with that for 18 months if the asking price was one top-five prospect. The problem comes with the Angels wanting four top-four prospects.

Since the Guardians don’t throw around a lot of money at free agents, the team fills holes through the minor league. The team may value their minor leaguers more than any other team in the league for this reason.

The team can’t listen to the likes of Ken Carmen when it comes to trading for Ohtani. Sure, he’s a name, but he doesn’t help the team long-term and that’s the only thing that should matter to this club. Not just 2022 and 2023, but 2024, 2025, and 2026.

If Ohtani isn’t willing to agree to an extension before a trade to Cleveland, the Guardians have no business getting involved with him.