Dan HajduckyMar 23, 2026, 05:58 AM
CloseDan Hajducky is a staff writer for ESPN. He has an MFA in creative writing from Fairfield University and played on the men’s soccer teams at Fordham and Southern Connecticut State universities.
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The jersey two-way star Shohei Ohtani wore during Japan’s 13-0 win over Chinese Taipei in the World Baseball Classic on March 6 sold for $1,500,010 via MLB Auctions on Sunday night — the most ever paid for an Ohtani jersey at auction.
In that game, played at the Tokyo Dome, Ohtani hit a grand slam and had five RBIs.
Overall in the WBC, he hit .462 with a 1.842 OPS. Japan, the 2023 champion, fell to eventual winner Venezuela in the quarterfinals.
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Over the seven-day auction, Ohtani’s No. 16 jersey racked up an astounding 298 bids. It was a sizable increase from the 2023 MLB Auctions sale when Ohtani’s jersey from a pool play WBC game against Australia sold for $126,100.
The recent auction appetite for Ohtani is ravenous. In the past three months, two cards featuring game-worn Ohtani jersey patches and on-card signatures have eclipsed $2 million at auction: The 2025 Topps Chrome MVP Award Gold MLB Logoman Ohtani card, which sold for $3 million just before Christmas, and the 2025 Topps Chrome dual MVP gold Logoman featuring Ohtani and Aaron Judge, which sold for $2.16 million on March 20.
Ohtani’s 50th home run ball in 2024 — which established the first 50-50 season in MLB history — sold for $4.39 million to Taiwanese investment firm UC Capital in October 2024, a record paid for a baseball. That money has remained in escrow as litigation over the ball’s ownership continues, with a jury trial in the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida court currently slated for July 20.