When the Los Angeles Dodgers landed Shohei Ohtani on a 10-year, $700 million contract in December 2023, it wasn’t just the biggest deal in baseball-it was the most lucrative contract in professional sports history. But what truly sets this agreement apart isn’t just the number on the page. It’s how that number is structured.
Ohtani’s deal is unlike anything Major League Baseball has ever seen. While the headline figure is $700 million, the Dodgers will only pay him $2 million per year through the 2033 season.
The remaining $680 million? That’s deferred until 2034-2043.
That’s right-Los Angeles gets the best player in the sport at a bargain price for the next decade, all while keeping payroll flexibility to build around him. It’s a financial masterstroke that gives the Dodgers room to chase more stars while still locking in the most unique talent baseball has ever seen.
And for Ohtani? The structure works just as well.
He gets long-term financial security, and thanks to the deferred payments, he also benefits from potential tax advantages. But let’s be clear-he’s not exactly scraping by on that $2 million salary.
In 2025, Ohtani pulled in an estimated $102 million in total earnings, with the vast majority coming from endorsements. That’s a number that puts him in rarefied air.
According to Sportico’s Kurt Badenhausen, Ohtani joined Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and Stephen Curry as the only athletes to ever earn $100 million in endorsements in a single year. That’s not just impressive for a baseball player-it’s unprecedented.
Before Ohtani, the ceiling for endorsement earnings in MLB hovered around $10 million, with legends like Derek Jeter and Ichiro Suzuki setting the standard. Ohtani didn’t just raise the bar-he launched it into orbit. His estimated $100 million in endorsement income shattered the previous benchmark and established a new era of global marketability for MLB players.
So how does he do it? For starters, Ohtani has built a portfolio of at least 20 brand partnerships.
We’re talking about major names like New Balance, Fanatics, Beats by Dre, Ito En, and Panasonic. And he’s not slowing down.
In 2025 alone, he added six more companies to his endorsement roster-including Epic Games, which made him the first active MLB player to appear in the wildly popular video game Fortnite. That’s the kind of crossover appeal that transcends the sport.
Ohtani’s global reach was on full display when the Dodgers opened the 2025 season in Japan. He was everywhere-billboards, commercials, product packaging. His face and name blanketed the country, a reminder that he’s not just a baseball icon, but a cultural phenomenon.
So where does that put him on the MLB earnings leaderboard? Despite the record-setting endorsement haul, Ohtani wasn’t the highest-paid player in 2025.
That honor went to New York Mets star Juan Soto, who earned an estimated $121.9 million last season. A big chunk of that came from a $75 million signing bonus tied to his own massive 15-year, $765 million deal with the Mets.
Still, Ohtani’s $102 million payday-driven almost entirely by his off-the-field brand power-speaks volumes. He’s not just changing the game with his bat and arm; he’s redefining what it means to be a marketable athlete in baseball. In an era where superstars are global commodities, Shohei Ohtani is leading the charge.