3 reasons why the SF Giants should try to sign Shohei Ohtani despite his injury

When it was announced that Shohei Ohtani had torn his UCL in his throwing elbow, it created a firestorm of speculation across the league as to what this could mean for his pending free agency. Given that the San Francisco Giants have long been expected to be suitors for Ohtani's services, they now have a lot to think about.

There are plenty of reasons to just avoid signing Ohtani altogether. While his price (probably) just went down, he will still be very pricey and there is no guarantee whatsoever that he will ever be the pitcher was again given that this could be his second Tommy John surgery in five years. It is also not known how long Shohei could be out to start the 2024 season which, again, muddies the waters a good bit. For a guy that is still going to command a massive contract, that is a lot of uncertainty.

However, despite all of that, it is probably a mistake for the Giants to close off the possibility of signing Ohtani this offseason. The price has to be right and the medical staff will have to do their due diligence, but Shohei still checks a lot of boxes the Giants want to check even if he ends up needing elbow surgery.

Here are 3 reasons why the SF Giants should try to sign Ohtani despite his injury

One thing to keep in mind is that we are operating with a lot of incomplete information here, so things could change significantly. It isn't even known yet as to whether or not Ohtani is going to require Tommy John and even when that becomes clear, important things to consider are how a potential surgery goes, how long his recovery is expected to take, what his scans look like, etc. This article is going to be mostly operating under the basic assumption that he will need surgery and his future as a starter is in doubt while ackowledging that the news could be either better or worse than that.

Let's take a look a the 3 reasons why the Giants should still consider signing Shohei Ohtani even with his elbow injury.