Chicago Cubs: Counsell bashes 'bizarre' Shohei Ohtani Rule

“I’ve never understood it,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell told reporters on Monday, before his team’s series opener against the Phillies at Wrigley Field. “It’s an offensive rule, essentially. It’s a rule to help offense, more than anything, if you ask me. And then there’s one team that’s allowed to carry basically one of both, and he gets special consideration, which is probably the most bizarre rule. For one team.”

“There’s not another player like that,” Counsell added, “but one team gets different rules for that player.”

Dave Roberts fires back

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, hearing of Counsell’s comments, later fired back.

“The thing is it certainly benefits us because we have the player,” said Roberts. “But that’s something that any team that had Ohtani would have that player. We’re more than willing for other teams to go out and find a player who can do both. He’s an exception because he’s an exceptional player. It is what it is.”

And “it is what it is” would certainly work as a brush-off for the ones benefiting from “what it is.”

The truth is that the Dodgers only have Ohtani because they were in the unique position to offer a 10-year, $700 million contract with a vast majority of that money designated for deferred payment, extending way out into 2043. It’s not like the Dodgers scouted him, developed him, and built him into a two-way star. All they did was be rich enough to win him over when he left the Angels for free agency.

This disparity in available spending money will be an issue at the upcoming Winter Meetings where MLB’s Collective Bargaining Agreement needs to be hammered out. Many believe that one major sticking point will be the institution of a salary cap, specifically because of the way the Dodgers have wielded their checkbook and the advantages it brings them.

The Cubs are set to travel to Los Angeles this weekend for a three-game series against the Dodgers.