Reporter addresses Yankees possibly pursuing Angels' Shohei Ohtani

New York Yankees reporter Chris Kirschner of The Athletic isn't convinced team owner Hal Steinbrenner will go all-in on signing Los Angeles Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani in free agency. 

"...Adding Ohtani to the payroll would create problems that I’m not sure Steinbrenner wants," Kirschner explained for a piece published Tuesday. "He’s said on numerous occasions that a team doesn’t need to spend over $300M per season to win a World Series. If the Yankees signed Ohtani, the payroll would almost certainly exceed $300M." 

Ace Gerrit Cole signed a nine-year, $324M contract with the Yankees following the 2019 season. This past December, the Bronx Bombers held onto reigning American League Most Valuable Player Aaron Judge via a nine-year deal worth $360M. 

It's believed Ohtani could earn up to $600M guaranteed from his next contract assuming he doesn't sign an extension with the Angels before he's due to hit the open market following the World Series. He's repeatedly been linked in rumors with the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers. 

"Just Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole alone would be more than $100M," Kirschner continued. "So the Yankees would have to shed significant salary for it to work, and there aren’t many avenues for them to do that." 

It was suggested back in April that Judge wants Ohtani as a teammate, and at least one Japanese baseball insider later hinted the phenom who turns 29 years old on July 5 could consider joining either the Yankees or Mets this offseason. As for Ohtani's availability, Angels general manager Perry Minasian recently indicated the team won't sell ahead of the trade deadline as long as it is in the playoff hunt. 

43-37 Los Angeles began Tuesday trailing the first-place Texas Rangers by five games in the AL West standings and was half a game back in the race for a wild-card postseason berth at that time. 

Similar to what was said about Judge last fall, Kirschner noted that the Yankees would recover money spent to acquire Ohtani from increases in merchandise and ticket sales along with bolstered YES Network television ratings. 

"Is it realistic as of right now to expect the Yankees to sign him this offseason? I doubt it, unless Steinbrenner is willing to offer a blank check," Kirschner added about baseball's unicorn who is seemingly coasting toward earning AL MVP honors for the second time in three years. 

Such information won't sit well with Yankees fans as their club struggles to remain in the wild-card playoff spots with Judge sidelined possibly through all of July, if not longer, due to a toe injury.