Shohei Ohtani’s ‘ShoGM’ Dodgers legend grows with details of Hye-seong Kim's signing

As soon as the full details of Shohei Ohtani's contract with the Dodgers was revealed, it was pretty clear that he was going to have at least a little bit of say in what the team ended up looking like going forward.

A "key man" clause makes it so Ohtani can revise his contract if president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and owner Mark Walter leave or are removed from their posts, which gives him a whole lot of leverage behind the scenes.

There are, of course, the on-field advantages of having Ohtani on a roster, but another layer was almost immediately revealed when the Dodgers signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto with help from Ohtani (and Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman). Thus, the legend of ShoGM, as fans have taken to calling him, was born.

That's not all. Ohtani's already paid for a chunk of his own contract thanks to multiple Japanese sponsorship deals agreed to throughout 2024.

Dodgers fans have been begging Ohtani to use some of that ShoGM influence on Roki Sasaki (even though Ohtani has said he hasn't actively tried to recruit him and Sasaki requested that players not attend his initial meetings with teams in December), but he did use it during the Dodgers' covert chase of KBO infielder Hye-seong Kim.

Shohei Ohtani wielded his 'ShoGM' powers during new Dodger Hye-seong Kim's free agency

Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register tweeted that reports of the Angels offering Kim a more lucrative offer than the Dodgers were false, but the Angels, Mariners, Cubs, and Padres were all in on Kim's market in the final hour, and the Dodgers did swoop in out of nowhere to recruit him as a superutilityman.

Kim said that Ohtani met with him in Los Angeles and "gave him a lot of advice" ahead of his official signing, and Ohtani welcomed him to the team on Instagram with a repost of the news and caption, "Welcome, my friend," in Korean.

Hopefully, when Sasaki returns to the States and resumes meetings with teams, he'll be more amenable to player guests during meetings and Ohtani can work some of that magic again. The Dodgers have a lot going for them, but Ohtani (and in smaller part Yamamoto) might be the key to getting another one of the offseason's most coveted free agents.