LOS ANGELES -- Japanese star pitcher and slugger Shohei Ohtani signed a one-year Major League Baseball deal worth $30 million to remain with the Los Angeles Angels for the 2023 season, the club announced Saturday.
The 28-year-old unique double threat inked the largest-ever MLB deal for a player eligible for arbitration, surpassing the $27 million given to Mookie Betts by the Boston Red Sox in 2020.
Reigning American League Most Valuable Player Ohtani's deal is fully guaranteed. He remains set to become a free agent after next season.
Ohtani has never gone through the arbitration process with the Angels, avoiding it this time as he did when he signed a two-year deal worth $8.5 million before the 2021 campaign.
Ohtani makes a hefty salary jump after making only $3 million last season and $5.5 million this year.
The battle for this year's AL MVP award figures to be between Ohtani and Aaron Judge, who has matched the AL one-season home run record by hitting 61 so far this season for the New York Yankees, matching the mark of 61 set 61 years ago by ex-Yankee Roger Maris.
On the mound as a right-handed pitcher, Ohtani is 15-8 with a 2.35 earned-run average and 213 strikeouts over 161 innings.
He was hurling a no-hitter into the eighth inning on Thursday against Oakland and is set to make his final start of the season in Oakland on Wednesday in the club's season finale.
With the bat, Ohtani is hitting .276 this season with 34 homers, 29 doubles, 11 stolen bases and 94 runs batted in over 152 games.
Ohtani entered the weekend with a 15-game hit streak, the longest active run in the major leagues.
He ranks in the top four in the AL in pitching wins, strikeouts, earned-run average and homers.
Despite Ohtrani's heroics, the Angels are days away from finishing off a seventh consecutive losing season. They haven't reached the MLB playoffs since 2014 and haven't won a playoff game since 2009.
Agence France-Presse
