ESPN’s sports debate captain Stephen A. Smith is never one to shy away from a hot take, but his rant against MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani getting paid feels like it’s pushing it by even his own standards.
On a new edition of First Take, Smith argued that no MLB team should pay Ohtani a $500 million contract for a litany of reasons.
While Smith brings up a fair point about Ohtani’s injury that could sideline him from pitching until 2025, he also brings in a bunch of silly reasons for not giving the MLB’s best player a payday.
Those include the Angels being bad with Ohtani there, other teams are good that haven’t paid a superstar like Ohtani such a large salary, changing baseball rules and that people didn’t show up to Angels games because they were bad.
Wh— what?
Stephen A. Smith says Shohei Ohtani doesn't deserve a $500 million contract because the Angels didn't win or fill seats when he was on the team pic.twitter.com/3Jbq3OmYEY
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) September 20, 2023
While Smith as an MLB general manager might not give Ohtani a half a billion dollars, there will be no shortage of teams who will do what is necessary to get one of the best baseball players of all time on their roster.
While it’s fine to not have clarity on Ohtani’s future health, trying to argue that he’s not worth the biggest salary in baseball doesn’t really work past this injury. If he could actually get on a good team, Ohtani’s electric play even as a hitter could boost them to immediate World Series contenders.
Once he gets back to pitching? He’d be worth every single penny you’d pay him and more.
MLB fans were not with Stephen A. Smith on this.
— Kofie (@Kofie) September 20, 2023
The Angels have had higher road attendance this year than every other American League team but the New York Yankees. 🤔 https://t.co/0KBoT9a1ss
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) September 20, 2023
SAS is good for meme material only, his actual assessments are never good https://t.co/YIaO5Gz0gE
— Vic Damone Jr (@wholesomefoxx) September 20, 2023
>Ohtani doesn’t fill seats
My man if Ohtani wasn’t on the Angels those games would look like a high school baseball game in rural Idaho https://t.co/3NEVvonNBu
— Soundwave (@LocalSoundwave) September 20, 2023
Us anytime Stephen A. Smith talks about Shohei https://t.co/xVpD9gzAdF pic.twitter.com/HSEL65f14U
— Baseball Isn’t Boring (@BBisntBoring) September 20, 2023
This is the biggest face in sports media talking about a sport he knows nothing about.
ESPN puts their worst out there for baseball analysis I swear. https://t.co/w2D5uTOHMi
— sky (@GonsolinRBW) September 20, 2023
You know it’s the end of September when Stephen a smith and espn get their 5 baseball segments for the year in https://t.co/IsKYMNu9bI
— John (@iam_johnw) September 20, 2023
This whole bad takes for views thing needs to end. https://t.co/BNctgN3Qnw
— commissioner shayla (Willi Castro for MVP) (@shaylarz) September 20, 2023
https://t.co/hL28exXYbC pic.twitter.com/0VsAsyXeLF
— jack (@Jolly_Olive) September 20, 2023
Ohtani can’t do it all by himself so the team not winning is a bad argument, and if the team is bad people aren’t going come to games. Especially in Anaheim where the stadium is rarely filled even when they’re good. Stephen A needs to stop talking baseball lol https://t.co/oy8ESzIffU
— Jonny's Lasagna ⚾️ (@JLasagna43) September 20, 2023
Tell me you don't watch the Angels without telling me you don't watch the Angels https://t.co/5atOLItZHe
— Ben Fadden (@BenFaddenSD) September 20, 2023
Stephen A Smith has something to say about Shohei? pic.twitter.com/Cj9kQ0Eg7E https://t.co/E0Dvp1IbrA
— Retire_Salmons15 (@Js4424) September 20, 2023
??????????? https://t.co/DvOylbJwhR
— Ashley Nicole Moss (@AshNicoleMoss) September 20, 2023
Why is Stephen A talking about baseball https://t.co/Fuh3MJG3Zp
— Jackson (@JacksonSkates_) September 20, 2023
what does that have to do with it. one guy doesn’t make a team alone https://t.co/RuSBbcI4B0
— tommaso (@sillynous) September 20, 2023
