SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants made three offers to Shohei Ohtani, including a final proposal that president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi called “very comparable if not identical” to the record $700 million, 10-year contract the Japanese two-way star agreed to with the rival Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ohtani spent two hours with the Giants for a ballpark meeting with Zaidi, Greg Johnson, former catcher Buster Posey and new manager Bob Melvin on Dec. 2. Zaidi said San Francisco increased and adjusted its offers to meet Ohtani’s requests.
“The proposal that was made was very comparable if not identical to what he wound up agreeing to,” Zaidi said during a conference call Tuesday. “We offered what would have been the biggest contract in major league history. I’m guessing we weren’t the only team that did that. But wanted to show our aggressiveness and interest right out of the gate.”
Zaidi said it might have been helpful to be able to take Ohtani around the San Francisco area to check out neighborhoods and real estate, but the meeting was restricted to Oracle Park to prevent Ohtani from being spotted.
When the Giants got the sense Ohtani seemed to want to stay in Southern California, Zaidi said there was a realization it might be a hard agreement to make happen despite the proposed financial commitment.
“And then we knew that would be a challenge for us,” Zaidi said.
San Francisco’s executives hadn’t heard anything back from Ohtani’s representatives by Saturday morning, a few days after the club’s latest offer. That became concerning to the Giants as the team waited for the player to make his choice.
Ohtani ultimately chose to leave the Angels — where he’d played since 2018 — and sign with the Dodgers, with the team announcing the deal on Monday.
The Giants missed out last offseason on Aaron Judge and then decided not to finalize a $350 million, 13-year agreement with shortstop Carlos Correa after concerns arose…
