Jeff Passan rightfully criticizes the Angels' inability to market Shohei Ohtani

Sports industries' main goal is to promote their superstar players, a feat that Major League Baseball has severely struggled with the past decade and a half. A Dodgers-Yankees World Series should make up a lot of that ground, as it possesses two high-profile, historic franchises who boast built-for-the-moment sluggers and hurlers. Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Juan Soto, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gerrit Cole will make for high drama and a league-saving amount of viewership worldwide.

Part of the impending viewership boom is due to this being Ohtani's first ever crack at the postseason, despite his prolonged greatness for the Los Angeles Angels. They rostered modern day Babe Ruth and modern day Mickey Mantle, Ohtani and Trout, and nobody cared. They could not make elite signings on the margins, bring along impact prospects, and had off-field drama that soured the entire experience.

ESPN baseball senior writer, Jeff Passan, did not mince words when discussing Ohtani's former franchise. Passan, on multiple platforms, discussed the gilded nature of the Angels franchise.

"When Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Angels, the baseball industry cocked a collective eyebrow. The Angels were backbenchers in Southern California, terminally misrun. The skepticism was proved well-founded: Ohtani spent six seasons in Orange County and played for teams that went a combined 401-469, finished in fourth place in the AL West five times and never made the postseason. For a team to pair Ohtani with Mike Trout for more than half a decade and never muster a winning record takes festering institutional rot. Relevance awaited 30 miles north."

Passan

The Angels were shiny on the outside, abhorrent on the inside. Due to the organization's incompetence, they were sheltering their two superstars, primarily Ohtani. For six years, the Angels disallowed viewers from experiencing what they just saw: Ohtani setting franchise postseason-series records and wowing fans on a global stage. Imagine if he could pitch for the Dodgers!

The Angels bashing did not stop there. Passan continued: "Beyond that, the Dodgers planned to tap into something the Angels never fully could: the power of Ohtani in Japan...If in his time with the Angels he managed to establish himself as inimitable in the same way as Ronaldo and Messi, LeBron and Steph, Brady and Mahomes, continuing with the Dodgers would exponentially increase the size of his stage. More than that, they were winners, something Ohtani had been starved for in Anaheim."

The key to the Dodgers tapping into Japan's population? Simply making the playoffs. Genius!10% of Japan's population were tuned into Game 5 of the NLDS, and their already-gargantuan merchandising sales are increasing even more so. Ohtani went from a Los Angeles team to another Los Angeles team, but the Dodgers' reach due to their generational winning ways unlocked more fame for the two-way superstar.

Passan did not stop there. In a recent interview on Ryen Russillo's podcast, Passan discussed how the Angels kept Ohtani a secret, "He was always just stuck in Orange County...he was sort of just tucked down near Disney, hidden away." Passan illuminates the reason for the Angels' lack of free agent signings, they find Anaheim to be an irrelevant sports town where nobody pays attention to what they accomplish. That might not be entirely accurate, but it's the perception around the league. For years, sports pundits debated whether anybody would notice Mike Trout if he walked past you on the street. Well, it's fair to say that if he played for the Dodgers, the majority of people would stop him and ask for a selfie as they would with Ohtani.

Despite the team's obscurity and on-field revulsion, Ohtani was famous when he played in Anaheim. Now, he is super-duper-mega famous, and making MLB even more money. If Ohtani ends up winning the World Series, he will be in yet another stratosphere of fame. While the Angels will be in yet another stratosphere of shame.