Mets raise money for looming Shohei Ohtani free agency in the best way

The Mets want Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani is going to cost more money than any player in baseball history has commanded. So you better believe the fundraising has already begun.

Funnily enough, Ohtani is contributing to some of that fundraising.

On Aug. 29, when the Angels played the Mets at Citi Field, Ohtani knocked out a panel on one of the stadium's video boards. NY is looking to profit off of it by auctioning off the broken panel.

Mets trying to fund Shohei Ohtani acquisition with broken video board

As of Thursday night, the price of the panel was up to $5,180. That's a prime piece of sports memorabelia, and it would only get more valuable if Ohtani ended up in New York full time.

Ohtani is expected to command a contract starting at $500 million. So the Mets need quite a few more video board panels to get knocked out by Ohtani for this to fully fund the contract. And then they may need more money to replace all the video boards he knocks out when he's playing at Citi Field regularly in a Mets uniform.

The good news for Mets fans is Steve Cohen has plenty of money in his bank account and has shown a willingness to spend it, for better or worse. He won't need to depend on auctions to make a deal happen.

Instead, this is all about recruitment. Can the Mets convince Ohtani to come to New York? That's the big question.

New York blew up their current roster at the trade deadline after a disappointing first half of the season. But they still have Pete Alonso and Kodai Senga to anchor a quick turnaround.