Reason 1: If he resigns, Arte will know he will continue to bring in loads revenue regardless if the team contends or not. He won’t have much incentive to sign other FAs in my opinion. He will have his cash cow. If Ohtani signs elsewhere, he will know he risks losing tons of fans if he doesn’t make some big moves.

Reason 2: If they are truly trying to contend next year, spending $50M on a guy that can only DH is probably not the best use of money. Other options such as Hoskins, Soler, Turner and Martinez will be available on much cheaper/shorter deals. Getting Trout and Rendon some games at DH could be a big help in keeping them healthy as well. Yamamoto is projected to get 25-30M yearly, and would allow them to go back to a 5 man rotation.