Travis Kelce is a huge Shohei Ohtani fan and praised the most unique athlete in baseball history.
But the famous Kansas City Chiefs tight end was in disbelief when discussing Ohtani’s new record-setting $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, co-owned by Chelsea chief Todd Boehly.
With almost all of Ohtani’s $700 million deferred for the next 10 years by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kelce can’t believe the unorthodox structure of the contract is allowed by Major League Baseball.
“It’s cheating. It’s cheating,” Kelce said on the recent New Heights podcast. “You can’t f******* do that. What’s the point of the cap? Is there a cap in baseball?”
As Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce and his brother tried to figure out whether there was a salary cap in baseball, both were in awe that all but $2 million annually will be deferred in Ohtani’s deal.
“I would be shocked if this contract is allowed to stand,” Jason said.
Travis then sounded like many non-Dodgers fans that love baseball but don’t understand how Los Angeles is making the money work.
By only paying Ohtani $2 million a year for the next decade, the Dodgers have the ability to sign more big-name free agents while having Ohtani on a loaded roster that already featured Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
The type of long term deal has already been used by billionaire Bohely in England’s Premier League where Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo are among players who have signed long term deals on huge contracts, with Chelsea spreading the cost paid to these players over the eight years. Put simply, the club is merely in a process of gradually writing off the initial cost of a player over the course of their contract.
“This is basically just making room for [the Dodgers] to go out and get another Shohei Ohtani,” Travis said.
“Ohtani signs $700 million contract with the Dodgers. What in the f***? is really going on in this world? This man made almost three-quarter of a billion dollars in one day. Just went to the other side of LA to play some baseball for the next ten years.”
While Jason pointed out that Lionel Messi actually had a larger average annual value contract with Barcelona, both Kelce brothers praised Ohtani’s sport-changing talent.
“The dude is unbelievable,” Jason said.
Travis believes that Ohtani is so special he will change the future of MLB by inspiring more young athletes to take a two-way approach in the sport.
“Shoutout to Ohtani, man,” Travis said. “Guy comes over here, arguably one of the greatest baseball players ever to do it, signs $700 million over the next 10 years.
“You know what it is? I think it’s going to change baseball. I think we’re going to see a lot more two-way players growing up or coming up in the MLB.”
The Kelce brothers also discussed their love of baseball.
But they had a different view of the game when they were kids.
“Every day, I need more action, man,” Travis said.
“That’s why we didn’t like it growing up and we both played baseball,” Jason said.
Travis joked that ‘conditioning’ in youth baseball can be pointless, since most players only have to run from first to second base.
“Get me the f*** out of here,” Travis said. “Why am I running foul pole to pole?”
But there’s nothing like “playoff baseball,” Travis said, which is filled with inning-by-inning drama and excitement.
It’s also a better sport as an adult, the brothers said, since you don’t have to deal with violent on-field collisions and most MLB players only take a few at-bats during a three-hour contest.
“As a grown adult, the best sport is baseball, hands down,” Jason said. “As a lazy adult, you mean to tell me I only get to do four at-bats a game and get paid a bunch of money? Like, let’s go do that.”
