Sports
Commentary: Agent Nez Balelo 'wouldn't do anything different' with Shohei Ohtani's $700-million deal
The business of sports often is cloaked in secrecy. You can find out the salary of your favorite player, but how much money his team makes and how much money he makes off the field are the stuff of estimates, not public discourse.
Not on Thursday, though. Is Shohei Ohtani really making more than $100 million this year in endorsements?
Nez Balelo, the agent for Ohtani, did not hesitate.
“Absolutely,” Balelo said at Sportico’s Invest West conference at Intuit Dome.
Balelo is not, shall we say, Scott Boras. He does not embrace public speaking. So we dropped by to hear what Balelo had to say after the first full season of Ohtani’s record-breaking $700-million contract with the Dodgers.
The record did not last long. Juan Soto signed for $765 million with the New York Mets last winter.
And, because Ohtani deferred $680 million and Soto deferred $0, and because a dollar today is worth more than a dollar 10 years from today, the actual value of Soto’s contract is $765 million and the actual value of Ohtani’s contract is $460 million.
Regrets?
“Not at all,” Balelo said. “We wouldn’t do anything different. He won a championship. He went to the right team. Why would we do anything different? No regrets. Nothing.”
Not even about the Angels, the team with which Ohtani chose to play the first six seasons of his major league career. The Angels never posted a winning record with Ohtani, let alone won a championship.
They did, however, stand by their commitment to let Ohtani bloom as a two-way player, even after his first Cactus League season was so rough they fielded questions about whether they would demote him to the minor leagues.
“If we had to do it all over again today, we would have done it exactly the same way,” Balelo said. “We would have chosen the Angels back in the day. It was the right place, with the group and Mike (Scioscia) and the whole team over there. They gave him an opportunity. They stuck with him. He had a tough spring. It was the right home for him at the time.”
“The Dodgers are the right home for him now.”
It was with the Angels — and in particular in 2021, when Ohtani won his first most valuable player award — that he blossomed into what Balelo called a “global superstar.”
However, before the start of his final season with the Angels, Balelo and Ohtani decided there would be no talks about an extension.
“We knew we were going to exercise our rights to go into free agency,” Balelo said.
The Angels opted to try to win with Ohtani in 2023 rather than trade him for a desperately needed infusion of young talent. They were three games out of a playoff spot at the end of July and traded prospects for rental help, then finished 16 games out of a playoff spot.
Balelo would not say exactly how many companies Ohtani endorses but put the number in the “low 20s.”
“It’s not like I’m out there pounding the pavement and soliciting companies,” Balelo said. “After 2021 and 2022, we could have really gone crazy. That’s not who he is. He doesn’t want that.”
He is everywhere in Japan, in advertisements above street crossings and at the airport, on television and in magazines. He endorses shoes and skin care products, airlines and watches and so much more.
An electronic billboard spanning nearly a city block featured advertising starring Shohei Ohtani near the Tokyo Dome in March, when the Dodgers were in town to play the Chicago Cubs to open the season.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“We have to make sure we don’t overexpose him,” Balelo said.
Say what?
“We could probably have 40 or 50 deals,” Balelo said.
That $100 million in endorsement income enabled Ohtani to offer the Dodgers — and other free-agent finalists, including the Angels — the same deal: $700 million, with $680 deferred. The Angels declined. On Thursday, Balelo condemned what he called the “reckless reporting” of Ohtani’s alleged flight to Toronto to sign with the Blue Jays.
The Dodgers took the deal, promising to use the money they would not be spending on Ohtani right away to sign other players.
“They get it,” Balelo said. “They have the vision.”
Within two weeks of signing Ohtani, they had spent more than $450 million on pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow.
“He knew the marketing leg was doing extremely well,” Balelo said. “He knew it was not about the money. It was more about getting with a team that would appreciate him and understand him and allow him to develop as a two-way player.”
With Ohtani coming off his second elbow reconstruction, Balelo said he wondered whether teams might recruit him only as a hitter. As it turned out, he said, none made such an offer.
Balelo said he could have pursued deals of as many as 15 years, and maybe even longer, but Ohtani rejected those overtures. When his contract with the Dodgers expires, he’ll be 39.
“He just didn’t want to have the end of his storybook career tail off,” Balelo said, “and then in Year 13, 14 and 15: ‘Who is this guy? He can’t even run down to first.’”
That raises the possibility that Balelo already has negotiated Ohtani’s last playing contract, even though Ohtani is 30.
Ohtani already has won three MVP awards, all unanimously. He would have won a fourth if not for Aaron Judge breaking the American League home run record in 2022. No one besides Barry Bonds has won more than three.
So Balelo might not be done negotiating on Ohtani’s behalf after all. The Cooperstown marketing deals await but, fortunately for the Dodgers, not any time soon.
Sports
Pirates star pitcher makes unfortunate history after being taken out in middle of perfect game bid
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Jared Jones was flirting with Major League Baseball history on Wednesday night — he got it, but it was not what he originally envisioned.
The Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher retired the first 18 batters he faced, but he was taken out in the middle of his perfect game bid after six innings.
Now, the Pirates certainly have their reasons — the 24-year-old Jones hasn’t thrown more than 81 pitches in eight starts since returning May 20 after missing all of last season while undergoing ulnar collateral ligament internal brace surgery on May 21, 2025. He was yanked with 77 pitches and likely would have needed more than 100 pitches to record the 25th perfect game in MLB history.
Jared Jones of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches during the first inning against the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park on July 8, 2026, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
However, Jones left the game after getting zero run support, so when the Atlanta Braves tacked on three runs late for a 3-0 victory, Jones instead found himself in the wrong chapter of the history books.
According to Opta Stats, Jones became the first pitcher in the modern era (since 1920) to pitch at least six perfect innings and not record a win.
“It does suck. Something’s cool coming on, but I’m on what? My eighth start off of surgery? I completely understand it, and it is what it is,” Jones told reporters after the game.
Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Jared Jones (17) makes his way to the field to warm up before pitching against the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park. (Charles LeClaire/Imagn Images)
JUSTIN VERLANDER ANNOUNCES HE WILL RETIRE AFTER THIS SEASON: ‘I’VE REALIZED THAT TIME HAS COME’
Jones said he didn’t entertain attempting to complete the perfect game.
“Not with the pitch count,” he said. “Not really ever expecting to go nine right now, so that was never in my head.”
Joey Bart, traded to the Braves from the Pirates on June 18, followed a double by Mike Yastrzemski with a 422-foot, two-run homer to left-center field off a slider from Dennis Santana. Drake Baldwin added an RBI single to center in the ninth for good measure.
It was the second time in less than a week that a pitcher was taken out of the game with a perfect bid through six innings — the Miami Marlins took Eury Perez out after seven innings in which he had 92 pitches. Perez, too, is in the midst of returning from injury and has surprisingly found himself right in the postseason mix.
He was pulled for Lake Bachar to start the eighth, and the Marlins allowed eight runs to the Athletics in the final two innings, but held on to win 9-8.
Jared Jones (17) of the Pittsburgh Pirates delivers a pitch during a MLB game against the Cincinnati Reds on June 27, 2026, at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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The Pirates are 4.0 games out of the final wild card spot, which is held by the Marlins.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON — The Dodgers are scheduled to visit the White House on July 23 to celebrate their latest World Series title.
“President Trump is excited to welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers BACK to the White House to celebrate their World Series championship!,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement to The Times.
The date falls on a scheduled off day in the middle of a nine-game East Coast road trip for the Dodgers. The team will play three games in Philadelphia against the Phillies July 20-22 before ending the trip with a three-game series against the New York Mets July 24 to 26.
The visit continues a tradition from the Dodgers’ two previous World Series championships. They were hosted by President Biden in 2021 and President Trump in April 2025.
After the Dodgers claimed their second consecutive World Series title with a dramatic Game 7 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, a visit to the White House was planned, but it wasn’t until Thursday that a date was officially booked and confirmed.
Questions swirled around whether players would decline the visit this year after it did not happen during a scheduled visit to Washington in April.
Kiké Hernández said in 2018 he was unsure he would have gone had the Dodgers won the World Series the previous year. Mookie Betts said he was undecided and needed to talk it over with his family when last year’s visit was announced. After winning his first World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2018, Betts skipped their trip to the White House the following year during Trump’s first term.
Both players, along with every returning member of the 2024 team who was with the team during its road trip, participated in the visit. The only notable absence was first baseman Freddie Freeman, who remained in Los Angeles to nurse an ankle injury.
Manager Dave Roberts, who indicated in comments to The Times in 2019 he might not go to the White House if Trump was president, also participated in last year’s ceremony.
Asked at the Dodgers’ fan festival in January about the possibility of returning to the White House, Roberts told The Times’ Bill Shaikin: “For me, I stand by: I’m a baseball manager. That’s my job.”
“I was raised — by a man who served our country for 30 years — to respect the highest office in our country,” Roberts said. “For me, it doesn’t matter who is in the office, I’m going to go to the White House. I’ve never tried to be political. … For me, I am going to continue to try to do what tradition says and not try to make political statements, because I am not a politician.”
Clayton Kershaw, who retired after last season but was on Team USA for this year’s World Baseball Classic, told The Times in the spring that he was aware Dodgers fans are split over whether the team should visit the White House again this year, but he said he is looking forward to it.
“I went when President Biden was in office. I’m going to go when President Trump is in office,” Kershaw said. “To me, it’s just about getting to go to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”
Times deputy sports editor Ed Guzman contributed to this report.
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All eyes were on Caitlin Clark on Wednesday night as she made her anticipated return from injury in a road matchup in Los Angeles.
But instead of a triumphant comeback, the Fever spent the entire night chasing the Sparks as Clark’s rough return fueled a 106-92 rout.
The superstar never found a groove, looking completely out of sync in her return from a back injury.
STEPHANIE WHITE GIVES CAITLIN CLARK STATUS UPDATE AHEAD OF FEVER-SPARKS, BUT HER NEXT MOVE RAISES QUESTIONS
Caitlin Clark huddles with teammates as the Indiana Fever battle the Sparks. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images) ((Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images))
Much of that disjointed performance falls squarely on head coach Stephanie White, who kept Clark on a ridiculously tight leash by limiting her to just 16 minutes. The stop-and-go approach could have sabotaged any chance for the phenom to establish a rhythm.
Clark finished with just 9 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Her minus-16 plus-minus told the story.
The Los Angeles Sparks were severely shorthanded, taking the floor without stars Kelsey Plum and Cameron Brink.
MERCURY’S NOW-DELETED SOCIAL MEDIA POST MOCKING CAITLIN CLARK DRAWS SCRUTINY AFTER STAR’S INJURY
Yet while a depleted Sparks roster played to win, Indiana spent the night over-managing its biggest asset.
With Clark on a minutes restriction and Aliyah Boston out of the lineup, Kelsey Mitchell was forced to shoulder the entire offensive burden.
Mitchell did her part, pouring in 29 points while shooting 5-of-9 from beyond the arc.
Caitlin Clark orchestrates the Fever offense as Indiana battles the Los Angeles Sparks in primetime action. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images) ((Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images))
But one hot hand couldn’t stop an efficient LA squad.
The Sparks shot 45% from three-point range, going 9-of-20 from deep to cruise to the 106-92 victory.
White’s next move is to sit Clark against the Mercury on Thursday while Boston returns.
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After Wednesday’s loss to a shorthanded Sparks team, it’s fair to question whether Indiana’s cautious approach is working. The Fever dropped to 12-9.
Caitlin Clark and Dearica Hamby face off as Fever and Sparks battle at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. (Photo by Tyler Ross/NBAE via Getty Images) ((Photo by Tyler Ross/NBAE via Getty Images))
Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela
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