Along with being the greatest baseball player of all time, we can now attach the label “smartest of all time” to Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani.

According to reports, agent Nez Balelo said it was Ohtani himself who came up with the idea of annually deferring $68 million per year of his 10-year, $700 million deal and paying out the bulk of the money between 2034-43 to ensure the Dodgers had enough money left to spend on other free agents who can help them win championships.

What a swell guy.

Ohtani hasn’t spoken to the media, so for now we can only speculate on how he became so fluent in contract construction, and why he’s so willing to put his team ahead of his own financial interests.

Everyone was aghast when the news leaked about the deferrals. Many on social media thought it was unfair to the other billionaires who can’t keep up with the Dodgers’ owners. But as it turned out, any player can defer as much money as he wants, and any team can offer to do so.

It’s seldom done because the value of money decreases over time, so why would anyone willingly take less now knowing the rest of the contract won’t be worth as much 10 years later? Ohtani’s deal will work out to about $46 million per year instead of $70 million, and though $460 million is nothing to sneeze at, it doesn’t sound nearly as cool as $700 million.

But Ohtani makes so much off the field — perhaps $50 million according to some estimates — that he doesn’t need another $70 million a year to pay his bills. He reportedly lives in a relatively modest home in Newport Beach, Calif., and doesn’t splurge on sports cars like Yoán Moncada, so he’ll be able to get by fine until the deferrals kick in 10 years from now.

The Dodgers are now well situated to make the postseason annually, just as they were before the signing. But as we saw this year when the Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles all won 100 or more games and failed to make it to their League Championship Series, the postseason is a crapshoot that renders the regular season meaningless.

The Dodgers started Lance Lynn in a playoff loss last October and watched him give up four home runs in an inning. Having money to spend doesn’t make you a genius.

The overreaction to Ohtani’s signing was to be expected, with Los Angeles Angels fans crying, Toronto Blue Jays fans angry and everyone else just shaking their heads over the massive figure.

The Athletic sent a reporter to Angels Stadium when the news was revealed Saturday on Ohtani’s Instagram account. Someone placed flowers on an Ohtani marker as though he was dead, not moving to Dodger Stadium.

“I haven’t eaten breakfast yet, I haven’t drank anything,” one fan said. “I woke up, saw Ohtani to the Dodgers and had a good cry in my shower.”

The fan reportedly was in his early 20s, not a child. The report noted that the “speed of his voice” increased and “he appeared to be holding back more tears.”

Oh, the pain. The agony of watching a professional athlete move across town for many, many millions of dollars is apparently life-shattering. Or maybe Southern California just has a higher share of drama queens rooting for its teams?

Who knows?

Meanwhile, ESPN reported an increase in betting on the Blue Jays on Friday after false reports of Ohtani’s destination surfaced on the internet, including a tweet about a flight that supposedly was taking him to Toronto.

“With rumors of Ohtani’s interest in Toronto swirling, the Blue Jays’ World Series odds improved from 15-1 to as short as 8-1, behind only the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers,” the ESPN report said, adding that “nearly 85%” of the money wagered on the World Series was laid on Toronto.

Las Vegas book manager Randy Blum told ESPN the media reports, including MLB Network, made him lower the odds on Toronto.

“These were from legitimate baseball guys, not random people on Twitter throwing things out there. … We had to respect it,” Blum said. “When it turned out not to be true, we cleaned it up.”

MLB Network’s Jon Morosi retracted his report that Ohtani was en route to Toronto after other reports confirmed the unicorn was still in California. Morosi, a respected reporter, later apologized on social media for his “inaccurate” reporting. But on an MLB Network program Monday in which inaccurate reporting on Ohtani was being discussed with a Blue Jays writer, no mention was made by the host that one of those reports was its own.

This, remember, is a network owned by MLB that let national reporter Ken Rosenthal leave last year because he was sometimes critical of Commissioner Rob Manfred and the league. Remember when we wondered whether MLB could own a network and let its reporters be objective about the league? At least that question finally has been answered.

The other false report, which said Ohtani was signing with the Blue Jays, came from Dodgers Nation, an aggregating blog that doesn’t carry the same weight as MLB Network. But it still had enough notoriety that its report quickly spread.

The site issued a classic non-apology apology afterward which began with a bizarre analogy comparing the reporting of the Ohtani falsehood to a tree growing in the Biosphere.

“We want to report the news, not just aggregate it,” the site said in an unsigned post from its editorial team. “That necessarily invites risks, like getting a story wrong the first time. We accept criticism when that happens. It can only help us grow.”

Good luck with that.

For those who put their money on the Blue Jays to win it all after reading Dodgers Nation or Morosi’s tweet, we can only offer our deepest condolences.

Cubs fans have dealt with the disappointment rather well. They reportedly were among the seven finalists for Ohtani in 2017 and might have moved into the top three or four in the 2023 sweepstakes. That’s progress, I suppose.

Only the most optimistic fans had confidence Ohtani would end up on the North Side. Bryce Harper’s friendship with Kris Bryant was supposed to be the impetus for a Harper signing in 2017. He also had a dog, like Ohtani, and named it Wrigley. But that never happened either.

The money the Cubs saved by not signing Ohtani can now go to other free agents, though we’ll have to wait to see whether that happens. President Jed Hoyer said last week he doesn’t “feel any big need to justify” making a splash after signing Craig Counsell as manager for a record $40 million over five years.

“Certainly I have no doubt over the next few years we’ll be aggressive,” he said. “If that’s this year, great. If that’s in future years … I don’t feel like we have to because of that.”

Once the calendar turns to January, free-agent prices generally come down a bit as players scramble to get a deal before spring training. The Cubs can still make a big move or two.

There apparently is no expiration date on this Hot Stove season.

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The Chicago Bears continue to check out a variety of sites in and around Chicago — including the site of Soldier Field — as potential homes for a new stadium, officials said Wednesday.

The Bears are doing due diligence on the viability of the south parking lot at Soldier Field as the location for their next stadium, according to unnamed sources cited by The Parkins & Spiegel Show on WSCR-AM 670 The Score.

The Bears have proposed building a $5 billion enclosed stadium and entertainment and housing complex on the site of the closed Arlington International Racecourse in Arlington Heights. The project has stalled while the team tries to negotiate favorable property taxes for the site.

The Bears reportedly are using the same surveying firm, Compass Surveying Ltd. in Aurora, that they used for Arlington Heights and other potential locations.

In response, the Bears would not confirm the report, but issued the following brief statement:

“As we stated in September earlier this year, we want to appropriately explore all opportunities across Chicagoland for the development of a world-class stadium.”

In September, Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren stated that the team was continuing a “methodical” process to find the best stadium solution.

“Thanks to the leadership of Mayor Brandon Johnson and his team, we have recently engaged in positive and productive discussions with the city of Chicago,” Warren said. “We also continue to have dialogue with officials in Arlington Heights and other Chicagoland locations about a Chicago Bears stadium project.”

While continuing such discussions this fall, the team did not pursue previous state legislative proposals for tax breaks to build a stadium — but a new legislative session starts in the new year.

The Bears have met with officials in Naperville. Aurora, Waukegan and Richton Park also expressed interest in hosting the team.

The parking area south of Soldier Field includes a garage and a ground-level lot. The area is party central for tailgating fans.

The area once was recommended by a mayoral task force as the site of the proposed Lucas Museum.

But “Star Wars” creator George Lucas, who planned to house his significant art and movie memorabilia collection there, dropped his plan in 2016 after the nonprofit group Friends of the Parks filed a lawsuit seeking to block the proposal. Any plans for a new stadium there might face similar objections.

The Bears have also resumed communications with school officials regarding the Arlington Heights site, Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes told the Tribune. That comes after the two sides had reached an impasse over property taxes and broken off negotiations for months.

Palatine Community Consolidated School District 15, Arlington Heights-based Township High School District 214 and Palatine-based Township High School District 211 have sought millions of dollars more in property taxes from the site.

To lower those taxes, the team this summer demolished the former Arlington Park and related buildings.

rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com

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With its deadline at the end of the month, a panel tasked with finding new symbols for Minnesota has honed in on three flag designs and finalized a design for a new state seal.

The State Emblems Redesign Commission on Tuesday chose three final concepts from the more than 2,000 design submissions it received from the public in October. Members entered Tuesday’s meeting with six finalists from their meeting in November. After voting, they whittled their choices down to three.

“I thought all six were strong, but emerging from public opinion and what I had heard and feedback from people from fellow Minnesotans, these were the top three that I think are the most unifying,” said Vice Chair Anita Gaul, who told reporters she expects the commission to narrow its choices to one finalist when members meet again Friday.

All three final designs bear a single star and include one or more shades of the color blue. Two include the color green. And if you use your imagination, one appears to feature a loon, a feature its designers called a “happy accident.”

The final flag the commission recommends for the state to adopt may not exactly resemble the designs in their current form. Each design already has multiple alternate versions, so a star could get a different number of points, or a color could be added.

Professional designers may also have a look at the final design and make recommendations on any final changes.

The 13-member panel is required to finish its work by the end of this year, and the state will have to adopt a new seal and flag by May 11, unless state lawmakers reject their recommendations.

Final 3

In first place was a flag with white, green and light blue horizontal stripes and a navy blue section on the left that mimics the shape of Minnesota. In that section is an eight-point white star meant to symbolize the state’s motto “Star of the North” as well as unity in a diverse land.

One of the finalists for the Minnesota state flag design as selected by the State Emblems Redesign Committee in St. Paul on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2022. (Courtesy of the State Emblems Redesign Commission)

The white stripe symbolizes snow, the green stripe represents nature and agriculture, and the light blue stripe represents the state’s waters — from its more than 10,000 lakes to the Mississippi River.

Its designer is 24-year-old Luverne resident Andrew Prekker, who says the “swallow tail” design is unique among flags of the world, and that he wanted to keep the design as simple as possible.

In second place was a design with a white star on a blue background above a green bottom half. The green and blue are separated by a white line to symbolize the state’s abundant winter activities. Its designer is John Muller, a former Minnesota resident who now lives in Texas. He flew to visit the commission’s hearing on Tuesday.

One of the finalists for the Minnesota state flag design as selected by the State Emblems Redesign Committee in St. Paul on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2022. (Courtesy of the State Emblems Redesign Commission)

In third place is a blue and white wave-like pattern symbolizing the significance of water to the state. According to its designers, it “pays tribute to Minnesota’s diverse and dynamic landscape, with wisps of snow, clouds, and aurora reflected by pristine, bending waters, and a guiding, four-pointed North Star inspired by the symbols and astronomy of Dakota and Ojibwe tribes.”

One of the finalists for the Minnesota state flag design as selected by the State Emblems Redesign Committee in St. Paul on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2022. (Courtesy of the State Emblems Redesign Commission)

It was designed by Peter Pitman and his son Todd Pitman of St. Paul. While it’s hard to see, they say two loons appear in the design, something they say they noticed during the design process.

Seal design updated

Commission members had already selected a new state seal design during their meeting last week, but on Tuesday they made a few modifications.

The design still centers around a loon, Minnesota’s state bird, and it’ll still feature waves to symbolize the state’s lakes, wild rice to symbolize agriculture and trees to represent forests.

However, the commission stripped the state motto “L’etoile du Nord,” French for “Star of the North,” from the final seal design and replaced it with the Lakota “Mni Sota Makoce,” a phrase meaning “Land Where the Waters Reflect the Clouds.” The phrase is where Minnesota gets its name.

Members also voted to remove the founding year of the state from the seal, 1858, after some members raised concerns that the year was a painful reminder for Native Americans of land cessions tribes made when Minnesota became a state.

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Panel names top pick for state seal. It’s the only one with a loon.