First pitch: From Ohtani to Braves success, 3 things I heard during All-Star Game media availability

Shohei Ohtani’s free agency a hot topic at the All-Star Game

There’s no question that the biggest star of the All-Stars on Monday was Shohei Ohtani. His presence at the media availability drew a swarm of reporters that dwarfed every other player.

While Ohtani was answering questions for reporters about his future (and making some interesting statements as well), there were plenty of questions being asked of other All-Stars on how they would lure Ohtani to their team.

Pittsburgh Pirates closer David Bednar thought “fries on everything” might do the trick. San Diego Padres closer Josh Hader thought location might be enough, saying, “It’s San Diego. I mean, do you really need much more than that? If you’ve ever been in San Diego, you know how beautiful it is. It’s a fun team. We’ve got a lot of great guys for long term, so he’s a guy that they probably want to lock up for a long-term deal as well, as long as they can find a billion dollars somewhere.”

A billion dollars? Is that really how much it’s going to take to land Ohtani? Possibly, but Salvador Perez threw out his own idea of what it would take to land Ohtani.

“$600 million,” Perez said is what he’d set for Ohtani’s salary. “He gets $300 million for hitting and $300 million for pitching. I feel like he’s Babe Ruth right now.”

Then Perez laughed.

“I may get in trouble for that, but that’s what I think. And give him 10 years, too.”