Driving a Hard Bargain 

I’m sure this negotiator feels a sense of accomplishment.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are spending incredible sums of both current and future money in their pursuit of a World Series championship. You should check your mail, because it’s very possible they’ve signed you to a multi-year deal without you even knowing it.

After signing Shohei Ohtani to a massive 10-year, $700 million contract, they next managed to scoop up Japanese phenom Yoshinobu Yamamoto with a relative bargain of a 12-year, $325 million deal. Yamamoto’s contract apparently includes some amusing perks. Baseball writer Jon Heyman has the details:

Perks in Yamamoto Dodgers contract: personal trainer; physical therapist, interpreter; 4 business class RT airline tickets ($8,500 max per RT) per year; 1 premium economy RT airline ticket to LA for use by family per year; best efforts to make Japanese food available.

Two things about this amuse me. Firstaball, if you’re making over $27 million a year, do you really need five comped airline tickets? And secondaball, having spent over a billion dollars on just two players, is it worth the Dodgers’ time to provide only four business class tickets, holding at premium economy for the fifth one?