Shohei Ohtani made this happen.

Shohei Ohtani is why the Dodgers were able to reach an agreement to sign Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

This wasn’t about Ohtani’s recruiting pitch to Yamamoto, who already was said to have an affinity for the Dodgers.

This was about the $680-million loan Ohtani made to the Dodgers.

With Ohtani practically printing money for them, the once-cautious Dodgers made a previously unthinkable move by committing $325 million over 12 years to Yamamoto.

The Dodgers refused to spend that much on Gerrit Cole when he was a free agent four years ago, and there’s no reason to think they would have spent that much on Yamamoto if not for Ohtani insisting they defer the overwhelming majority of his annual $70-million salary without interest.