1
is of course different from (1) free agency money or (2) posting fees.
Each team gets only $2-4 million (or somesuch) total, to offer around and sign 16-year-old Venezuelans, of which Ohtani is effectively one.
As Bahm1 said, you wouldn't think Ohtani would care too much about $2.4M offered vs $3.8M offered -- except for one thing. The respect factor. That, and it ain't like a wire transfer of $1,000,000.00 is meaningless to ... anybody.
.....
Guess here is that Ohtani's agent has signalled that they expect the max, and the guess here is that the M's are now auctioning "anything that isn't nailed down." :- )