Shohei Ohtani was the most sought after free agent in MLB history before ultimately signing a record breaking contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Among the teams interested were the San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Angels, Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, and others. While it seemed like most teams were on the outside looking it from where the Dodgers were standing, the Blue Jays may have been the closest team to landing him that ultimately didn’t.
The people of Toronto were unfairly given unrealistic expectations that the Blue Jays were potential front runners in the Ohtani sweepstakes after reports speculated that he was on his way to meet with the team via private jet. However, those turned out to be false, and he soon after chose L.A. as his next club.
While Ohtani has expressed his happiness in choosing the Dodgers, he also is grateful to all the teams who were interested in signing him and let it be known that it was nothing personal, according to Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“Aside from how the fans may or may not think, I’m just very grateful for the teams that approached me and wanted to sign me,” he said. “As I said in my press conference before, ultimately I could only choose one team.”
The false report that Ohtani was on that flight to Toronto was as just as surprising to him as it was to everyone else in the baseball world but he has nothing but great things to say about the city, organization, and fans.
The Giants were also desperate to land a superstar in the offseason and made a play for both Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but of course lost out on both of them with the two teaming up with the Dodgers.
Shohei Ohtani setting records with Dodgers
Ohtani has been as advertised during his time with the Dodgers, which has included him breaking the franchise home run record for home runs by players born in Japan. He also set the MLB record for the same feat while with the Dodgers.
In addition, he was named MLB’s player of the week to begin May.
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