There is not a long list of athletes more popular on planet Earth than Shohei Ohtani. The Japanese baseball sensation has dominated his sport in every individual facet, pitching and hitting his way to MVP awards in Nippon Professional Baseball, Major League Baseball and the World Baseball Classic. A once-in-a-century, two-way force whose free agency saga cast a spell over the entire sport and established a new record contract.
He might be as famous as an athlete can be, but is there room for the Ohtani hype train to grow? Yes, says David Leiner, president of trading cards at Fanatics Collectibles. At least that’s what Topps is betting on.
Topps, which was purchased by Fanatics in 2022, inked an exclusive, long-term trading card deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-time MVP in a move announced Thursday.
“This is massive,” Leiner told The Athletic.
“For me, one I’m a fan of his, and two I was dying to delight our fans, delight our collectors. I’ve been 15 years between Topps and Fanatics and at the end of the day, I’m evaluated and Topps and Fanatics are evaluated on how we deliver for our collectors. And there’s no better way than delivering the biggest global athlete in all of baseball.”
Leiner declined to comment on the financial specifics of the deal, but emphasized that it’s a long-term partnership.
“I’m happy to be exclusively partnering with Topps to give fans unique cards and collectibles for seasons to come,” Ohtani said in a press release.
Fanatics previously signed Ohtani to an exclusive memorabilia partnership, but the new deal gives the company exclusive rights to show Ohtani in a Dodger uniform on trading cards, plus exclusively feature on-card autographs and game-used memorabilia in their cards.
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after the final out of the World Baseball Classic championship. (Photo: Eric Espada / Getty)
With Ohtani now on the Dodgers, it not only offers Topps a massive market of fans in L.A., but also a franchise with a storied international presence. For Leiner, that global appeal is as important as anything.
Within Ohtani’s deal, the company will include Japan-based products.
“There are 125 million people in Japan and now he’s on a bigger team, moving from the Angels to the Dodgers. There’s more history and heritage with the Dodgers,” Leiner said. “The Dodgers have had other notable Japanese stars come through, including Hideo Nomo and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Having a global superstar like Shohei really enables to continue growing collectables on a global basis.”
Topps expanded in Japan in 2021, inking a licensing agreement with the NPB. The card demand ever since has been incredibly strong, Leiner said. Topps also produces Japan-exclusive MLB sets.
“We have to allocate our product pretty tightly and there’s always an abundance of demand well in excess of the supply in Japan,” he said. “It’s a nice problem to have.”
A focus of Leiner’s with Ohtani in the Fanatics fold is to make the superstar’s collectibles be both obtainable and accessible.
“I want Ohtani’s autographs to be accessible to collectors of all shapes and sizes and income levels and all those things,” Leiner said. “You’ll see his autographs featured from the entry level to the ultra high end (Topps products).”
Ohtani joins fellow L.A. megastar LeBron James as top-tier athletes who now have exclusive deals with Fanatics.
The deals with James and Ohtani are products of Fanatics seeking to evolve the type of partnerships it has with athletes, Leiner said.
While card companies have historically had good relationships with teams, leagues and players associations, the connection with athletes was sometimes little more than throwing them a box of cards in a hotel room and asking them to scribble their signature 1,000 times.
It was merely transactional, and that took a toll on the players’ relationships with the industry.
“But what we’re doing with LeBron, what we’re doing with Ohtani, players of that stature, is trying to create what we call 360-degree partnerships, where these folks feel a true partnership with us, with the fans, with the collectors,” Leiner said. “LeBron James hadn’t been doing NBA trading card autographs in a number of years, so to bring him back into the category has been pretty big.”
When asked if a potential cross-sport piece featuring both James and Ohtani could be on the horizon, Leiner only smirked and said to stay tuned.
“We look to innovate and do things the collectibles category has never seen before. Could be some tricks up our sleeve,” he said.
As for the hopes of a card set exclusively built around Ohtani, Leiner didn’t say no, but emphasized how rare such a product would be. Doing something that large on an individual basis is “rarified air,” he said.
Ohtani, he hinted, might justify it though.
“A lot of our category is built on ripping through packs and trying to find that superstar or that card you’re seeking for your collection, so when you do things for an individual athlete it has to be a really special and unique, and there needs to be a time and a place for it,” he said.
“When an athlete warrants something of that level, we’re open to it. Shohei is definitely in that very elite, tiny group of athletes.”
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(Top photo: Adam Hunger/Getty Images)
