Mad money

 Of course the Dodgers got him. The rich always get richer, right? 

The rich always get richer, and the Dodgers are stupid rich, clearly, because they just opened the vault and handed Shohei Ohtani a 10-year deal worth $700 million. Seven-hundred million! You could buy yourself a whole pile of them eight-slice toasters for that.*

(*A reference to some hilljack in Ohio who once won several mill in the lottery, and, when asked what he was going to do with the money, replied "Well, I always wanted of them eight-slice toasters.")

Anyway, Shohei's a rich man, and everyone in baseball is in shock because ... well, because $700 million blows the whole pay scale right to Alpha Centauri. Seven hundred million for hitting a ball with a stick and making other people miss it with their sticks -- Ohtani's otherworldly gifts -- is the thing that appalls me in these deals, however. What always appalls me is there are people in America with so much of so much they can afford to pay a man seven hundred million to do that.

Meanwhile you've got other people in America living on Pete's Pride Pork Fritters and Banquet pot pies. It is a wonder -- and not the good kind.

But enough social commentary.

This is about Ohtani's stunning deal, and the equally stunning decision by the Dodgers to make it a 10-year package. Surely there must be some sort of guardrails baked into the thing, because Ohtani's already 29 years old, his pitching arm is messed up enough that he's not scheduled to pitch again until 2025. And who knows what kind of ghost that arm will be then?

So let's just say for now that he's getting $700 million for 10 years to hit home runs. And he will. But how many is going to be hitting when the contract expires? 

He'll be 39 then. Unless he's even more the freak of nature he already is, he won't be the same player. Heck, the Dodgers may have already dealt him if they can get someone to swallow the mammoth chunk they'll have to swallow. 

That's what happened back in 2004 when the Texas Rangers, just three summers into the then-record 10-year, $252 mill contract they handed Alex Rodriguez, traded him to the Yankees for Alfonso Soriano and one other player. Three years later the Yankees re-upped A-Rod to another 10-year deal, which Rodriguez played out to its end.

He was 30 years old then. So, hey, maybe this 10-year thing with Ohtani will work out after all.

But color the Blob skeptical. As ever.