Ohtani hits it big as rare MVP free agent

Following a tremendous 2023 season, Shohei Ohtani became the 33rd player to win multiple MVP Awards and the first to do so unanimously. He was also only the fifth player to claim the award in the same year as he became a free agent.

Although it’s a rare occurrence, this was the second straight year in which the AL MVP reached the open market; the Yankees' Aaron Judge found himself in that position in 2022. Prior to that, it had happened just once in the previous three decades.

Here's a look at where each MVP-winning free agent ended up the following year

2023: Shohei Ohtani signs with Dodgers

Ohtani’s 2023 season with the Angels was better than his 2021 MVP season in many respects. Each of his triple-slash numbers -- .307/.412/.654 -- were career bests. No one in MLB had a higher on-base percentage or slugging percentage. But of course, that’s only half of Ohtani’s greatness. His .184 opponents’ batting average and 31.5% strikeout rate were tops among AL pitchers with at least 130 innings.

Even with a late-season elbow injury requiring surgery that will keep Ohtani off the mound in 2024, there was no doubt that he was the No. 1 free agent of the offseason. The Dodgers, long considered the favorites for his services, went all out in their pursuit. A few days after the conclusion of the Winter Meetings, they landed Ohtani on a record-setting contract worth $700 million over 10 years.

2022: Aaron Judge re-signs with Yankees

Judge won his first career AL MVP Award thanks to a record-setting season. The Yankees slugger hit 62 home runs, breaking the AL record set by Roger Maris with 61 homers in 1961. Judge finished the 2022 season with a .311/.425/.686 slash line, posting an 1.111 OPS and an MLB-best 10.6 bWAR.

Before the 2022 season began, Judge turned down a seven-year, $213.5 million extension with New York, playing out the final year of his rookie contract with the Yankees on a $19 million salary. Thanks to his MVP-caliber season, Judge's bet on himself certainly paid off.

The Giants reportedly made the California native a substantial offer, but Judge ended up back in pinstripes after all. The Yankees re-signed their MVP outfielder to a nine-year, $360 million deal.

2007: Alex Rodriguez re-signs with Yankees

Rodriguez launched 54 homers, drove in 156 runs and posted a 1.067 OPS for the Yankees to win his third AL MVP Award in 2007. That was the seventh season of a then-record 10-year, $252 million contract he signed with the Rangers prior to the 2001 campaign (Texas traded A-Rod to New York in 2004). But it was also the first time Rodriguez could opt out of the deal, and he did so.

Although it seemed that Rodriguez's time with the Yankees was at an end given that his agent announced the opt-out during the World Series, the Yanks inked a fresh 10-year, $275 million deal with the superstar slugger that broke his own record for largest MLB contract in history.

Due to injuries and a suspension for violation of the MLB Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment program that cost him the entire 2014 season, Rodriguez only played in more than 150 games in a season once over his remaining nine with the Yankees.

1992: Barry Bonds signs with the Giants

Bonds' departure from Pittsburgh, where he won two National League MVP Awards and rose to the stature of best position player in baseball, was all but a foregone conclusion given the Pirates' inability to afford a superstar of his caliber once he hit free agency.

Following a 1992 campaign in which he put up the best numbers of his career to that point -- a 1.080 OPS, 34 home runs, 127 walks -- and led the Pirates to their third consecutive NL Championship Series, Bonds signed with the team on which his father, Bobby, became a star two decades earlier. Bonds inked a seven-year, $43.75 million deal with the Giants, returning to the city his father and godfather -- Willie Mays -- had called home.

From there, Bonds won five more MVP Awards in 15 years with San Francisco.

1989: Robin Yount re-signs with Brewers

Yount won his second career MVP Award by posting an .896 OPS with 21 homers and 19 steals for Milwaukee in 1989. He became a free agent that offseason, but re-signed with the only Major League organization he had ever known, inking a three-year, $9.6 million pact.

The future Hall of Famer played another four Major League seasons, all with the Brewers, before calling it a career. He hit .257/.330/.381 with 43 homers and 45 steals over that span.

Other situations of note

There are two other instances of an MVP winner re-signing with their team. While they did not technically reach full free agency and negotiate with other clubs, it's worth making note of them.

1987: Andre Dawson re-signs with Cubs

When Dawson famously sent "a blank contract" to the Cubs in 1987, asking them to fill it in with whatever the club felt was fair, no one knew just how great of a signing he would turn out to be, even after his great 11-year run with the Expos.

Dawson went on to smash a career-high 49 home runs while driving in 137 and accumulating 353 total bases, also career bests. He also won the seventh of eight career Gold Glove Awards in the outfield. After signing "The Hawk" for a $500,000 base salary in 1987, Chicago inked him to a three-year, $6 million deal the following offseason. (Had Dawson not re-signed, he would have been eligible for salary arbitration rather than becoming a free agent.)

Dawson was an All-Star again in each of the next four years and was signed to an extension during that period that kept him on the North Side of Chicago through the 1992 campaign.

1976: Joe Morgan re-signs with Reds

Morgan won back-to-back NL MVP Awards in 1975 and '76, helping the "Big Red Machine" win the World Series in both years. But in the offseason after his second MVP honor, he had the opportunity to leave Cincinnati as a free agent if the Reds didn't sign him by March 10, 1977. Negotiations dragged into Spring Training, but the two sides finally reached an agreement on a three-year, $1.3 million deal. Morgan never technically reached free agency until after his new deal expired in 1979.

Morgan did not replicate his MVP-level performances of 1975-76, although he was still productive, posting an .801 OPS with 44 homers and 96 steals over that period. When that contract was up, the veteran second baseman signed with Houston, the club with whom he made his MLB debut in 1963.

The Astros released Morgan following the 1980 season. He signed with the Giants, and after two seasons in San Francisco, he was traded to the Phillies. He finished his playing career with his hometown club, the A's, in 1984.