Shohei Ohtani is already spending some of his free agency windfall.
The two-way MLB star, expected to receive a contract worth $500 million this offseason, announced he donated about 60,000 baseball gloves to Japanese elementary schools.
“I’m happy to announce that I will be donating approximately 60,000 youth gloves to every elementary school in Japan,” Ohtani announced on Instagram on Wednesday. “That comes out to around 20,000 elementary schools. I’m hoping the kids can spend their days happily with a lot of energy through baseball.”
The gloves are made by New Balance, one of his corporate partners.
Ohtani, 29, may want to set some cash aside for a potential move too.
After six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, the perennial MVP candidate has hit the open market.
He’ll have no shortage of suitors following a season in which he batted .304 with 44 homers and went 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA as one of the top players — both as a pitcher and hitter — before undergoing having Tommy John surgery in September.
Few teams may be able to match the record amount of money he’s expected to get, however, with The Post’s Jon Heyman postulating a potential half-billion dollar deal — even if he’s not expected to pitch again until 2025.
The Mets and Yankees are assumed to be among the bidders for his services, though Heyman reports Ohtani appears to prefer the West Coast, with the deep-pocketed Dodgers the front-runners to land him.
The San Francisco Giants are preparing a “full-court press” to sign Ohtani, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“I would think the Giants are a natural fit,” one agent told the Chronicle’s Jon Shea. “The Rangers seem built to last. The Dodgers have to be in that conversation. You have to think the Yankees because they could always make it work. He can go where he wants. He’s on his own island.”
And he’s got plenty of gloves to share.