Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani took serious heat for the super clandestine way he and secret agent Nez Balelo conducted the biggest free-agent derby in baseball history. Heck, they still haven’t revealed the name of his puppy.
The way this ended, I’m guessing it’s Koufax. (But I’m still investigating, and will definitely let you know!.)
To top off the quietest half-billion-dollar-plus derby ever, Ohtani’s CAA group announced the groundbreaking $700M Dodgers agreement via email simultaneously to all interested working parties (that is anyone unlucky to have a media job). And they did it on a sleepy Saturday afternoon no less.
I see nothing wrong with any of it.
While I enjoyed The Decision and didn’t even mind LeBron taking to national TV to leave his hometown team for South Beach, which happens to be slightly cooler than Akron, that just isn’t Ohtani. And if he wanted to keep the pursuit and even announcement on the down low, that’s fine by me.
I am actually here today to praise Shohei, who in the end did the right thing by us by signing with the long favored, consistently excellent and historically relevant Los Angeles Dodgers. So at least we will now be able to continue to follow his career.
No offense to the Toronto Blue Jays, rumored in the final days to be making progress, but this is much better for Major League Baseball. I know I will be accused of being an American but the Dodgers are a storied franchise, the franchise of Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax and Vin Scully. Baseball will be better for it.
Jays people are rightly wondering today whether they ever really had a chance. My guess is no, although of course we’ll never hear it from the emailing agency or the silent superstar, who just wants to play ball and continue to prove he’s one of the best ever, if not the best.
There are plenty of good reasons the Dodgers were favored from the moment we started writing about Ohtani’s free agency more than a year ago. The two biggest ones are that the Dodgers are the most consistent recent winner in MLB and that he is said to love Southern California. He lives in Newport Beach (which is 46 miles and sometimes an eternity from Chavez Ravine — yet close enough). So what’s not to love?
The Jays may have been a better opportunity for marketing dollars because they represent an entire country — certainly for the team and maybe for him — but he has to live, too.
There’s a feeling, at least among some Jays people, that maybe they were “used,” which looks like a definite likelihood at this point. If they were, that’s all part of the process — although, by focusing on Ohtani they missed their chance to acquire Juan Soto, and saw him go to the competing Yankees. (The Jays are looking for a lefty slugger now, with the game’s two best off the board.)
A last-minute trip by Ohtani to tour the Jays’ spruced-up spring training facility late in the game now looks like a “tell.” Rival execs point out that no one ever decides where they will live and play based on six weeks at a spring training site, no matter how lovely it is. If that’s a factor, folks would be lining up to sign with the Rockies or Diamondbacks.
If the Ohtani camp was going to use a team to aid negotiation, I do wonder why they’d pick the Jays, who never seemed like the logical fit until rumors started rolling late and we began to wonder whether anonymity was even more important than address. I suppose we will never know that, but at this point all that matters is that Ohtani made the right call.
Not only for him but us too.
Sorry, but reality is reality. The Jays are a fine team and organization. They’ve made the playoffs three of the last five years. Toronto is a beautiful city, too, but for non-hockey sports, there’s a small-time feel to the place.
LA is where Ohtani belongs. Just glad he knew that, too.
The Dodgers are a traditional franchise that’s followed by everyone who seriously follows baseball. They basically sell out (and will now). Their fans are into it, no matter the rep.
The Dodgers are already on TV a lot, they’ll just be on more. This is great for the game. Their top three in the batting order — I’m guessing Mookie Betts, Ohtani and Freddie Freeman, although I haven’t asked Dave Roberts — is historically good.
And by the way, I’m glad that Roberts revealing what day they met with Ohtani didn’t cost the Dodgers. How could it? Although suitors were apparently warned to keep their traps shut, does anyone really think anyone chooses where they are going to play and live based on who is aligned as tight-lipped and robotic?
Roberts, of course, is just another positive reason to join the Dodgers, a terrific personality and accomplished skipper. And even if he is honest, he’s another reason Ohtani made the right call — for him, but especially for us.