Another set of unfortunate news has hit the Los Angels Baseball team: their head coach shed tears as four of his star players made the decision to terminate their huge contracts.

Another set of unfortunate news has hit the Los Angels Baseball team: their head coach shed tears as four of his star players made the decision to terminate their huge contracts.

Baseball’s top free agent, Shohei Ohtani, who is the league’s first genuine two-way star since Babe Ruth, has committed to a record 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Ohtani announced the deal on Instagram on Saturday. According to ESPN, it would pay $700 million over the course of ten years.

It’s a record-breaking deal for MLB, surpassing the $426.5 million that his former team, the Los Angeles Angels, paid Mike Trout in 2019. Ohtani’s new Dodgers colleague Mookie Betts has a $365 million contract, while Aaron Judge of the Yankees is currently fourth on the all-time list with a $360 million contract.

With an average yearly salary of $70 million, Ohtani comfortably outpaces the current leaders, Justin Verlander of the Houston Astros and Max Scherzer of the Texas Rangers, who will both earn $43.3 million in 2024.

In addition to his 3.14 earned run average and pitiful 1.06 walks and hits per inning, he had a career-high 1.066 OPS and belted 44 home runs for the Angels last season. However, after undergoing his second Tommy John treatment in the winter to treat his elbow, Ohtani will be limited to a designated hitter role for the Dodgers in 2024.

Maybe all Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, Perry Minasian, and Arte Moreno need is a basic education in history laced with an understanding for the paranormal.

Maybe, if not prevented, the disappointment and dismay that accompany every wish coming true could have been lessened.

The general manager and owner of the Angels, who are two of the best players in the league, may have thought that the team was cursed. It has always been.

Maybe Trout wouldn’t have returned from injury so quickly, Minasian wouldn’t have held onto Ohtani until the trade deadline, and Moreno wouldn’t have broken his word to sell the franchise. Maybe Ohtani wouldn’t have been careless with his arm health.

In the first game of a doubleheader on Thursday, July 27, 2023, in Detroit, Hunter Renfroe of the Los Angeles Angels hits a double off the Detroit Tigers in the fourth inning. (Photo by Paul Sancya/AP)
ANGELS

Six players, including Lucas Giolito and Hunter Renfroe, are placed on waivers by the Angels August 29, 2023

Maybe the front staff wouldn’t have felt pressured to dump six players—outfielder Randal Grichuk, relievers Reynaldo López, Dominic Leone, and Matt Moore, starter Lucas Giolito, and slugging Hunter Renfroe—on waivers. The Reds claimed Renfroe, while the Guardians claimed Giolito, López, and Moore.

Sickened? That’s a designation that should not be applied carelessly, existing somewhere between doomed and jinxed as an explanation for unending suffering. But it’s a well-known story in baseball history.

On August 11, 2023, in Houston, Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels observes the ninth inning from the dugout.
Mike Trout, the standout center fielder for the Angels and three-time MVP of the American League, has only played in 82 games this season due to injuries.

For eighty-six years, the Boston Red Sox were dogged by the Curse of the Bambino. However, in 2004, the team’s victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series and a stolen base by Dave Roberts in the American League Championship Series destroyed the curse, much like Neil Diamond singing “Sweet Caroline.”

The Chicago Cubs suffered for 71 years under the Curse of the Billy Goat until 2016, when Joe Maddon (remember him?) guided them to a World Series victory over the Cleveland Indians.