Shohei Ohtani's $68,000,000 salary deferral makes perfect sense for 'The Rookie' star Eric Winter

Film and television actor Eric Winter said he found it totally understandable why Shohei Ohtani opted to defer almost his entire salary upon signing the record-breaking 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Winter said Ohtani is already earning more from his endorsement deals than any other player does in wages, so he can easily afford to defer his pay from the Dodgers.

Eric Winter is the star of the ABC show "The Rookie." He has also starred in the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives and the CBS drama series The Mentalist, while his film appearances include Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and The Ugly Truth. Winter was born in the Los Angeles area and thereby grew up supporting the Dodgers.

On Thursday, Eric Winter was a guest on the Rich Eisen Show. Among other things, he talked about the deferred contract of Shohei Ohtani during the program.(Timestamp: 10:45 onwards)

"Shohei set an incredible precedent, but then I also read some insane fact about his endorsement earnings compared to the rest of the entire league; it's not even," Winter said. "He doesn't need it, by any means.

"I don't know if what I read is totally accurate, but it was something like he'd get $50 million a year in endorsements, and the next dropoff was a single-digit million for the next player. It was a massive chunk of money."

As per Spotrac, Ohtani will receive just $2 million in annual wages from the Dodgers over the course of his contract but will receive $68 million annually as deferred money for the following ten years.

"The Dodgers had a more innovative way of doing it": Eric Winter on building super team with Shohei Ohtani and co.

Shohei Ohtani is expected to return to a major league mound at some point this year (Image Source: IMAGN)

The Los Angeles Dodgers have seemingly built a super team after committing more than $1 billion to acquire Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto at the start of the 2024 season. Despite winning the World Series last year, the Dodgers have continued to spend heavily in the free agent market for the upcoming season as well.

By deferring money on the player contracts, Eric Winter feels the Los Angeles Dodgers are poised to dominate the MLB just like the New York Yankees did in the past.(Timestamp: 9:40)

"Same way the Yankees did it for however long they did. That's all New York did for however long it was, and it drove everybody crazy," Winter said. "I'll say this: the Dodgers had a more innovative way of doing it. They started deferring all these contracts. You hadn't seen that before. They're able to bring in more and more people.

"Now the pressure is on the Dodgers if they don't win the World Series. I'm a little nervous about," he laughed. "But we're in a great, great place."

Some of the noteworthy additions to the Dodgers 2025 roster include Blake Snell, Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, Roki Sasaki, Michael Conforto and Hyeseong Kim.