Shohei Ohtani didn’t quite ruin Christmas for one Toronto Blue Jays player, but it was at least something comparable.
In a feature by Jayson Stark of The Athletic that ran on Tuesday, Blue Jays pitcher Alek Manoah revealed the absolutely brutal way he found out that his team had missed on the MLB superstar Ohtani. Manoah was about to walk down the aisle to get married when he got the news that Ohtani was signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“I do remember,” said Manoah. “Right before I was going to go walk down the aisle, my dad was like, ‘We didn’t get Ohtani. He signed with the Dodgers.’ And I was like, ‘Damn, That sucks.’
Manoah married longtime girlfriend Marielena Somoza, a former West Virginia volleyball player, on Dec. 9 in Puerto Rico. Among the guests in attendance were ten of his teammates on the Blue Jays.
“Then I remember, as I was walking down the aisle and saying hi to everybody or whatever, I saw the guys [from the Blue Jays] sitting all together,” Manoah added. “And I was, like, ‘What’s up, boys? Damn, we didn’t get Ohtani.’ On my way down the aisle. And we all started laughing.”
It does not get much worse than finding out that way, especially since it legitimately seemed in the hours prior that Ohtani was signed, sealed, and delivered to Toronto. A prominent report just the day before had stated that Ohtani was about to sign with the Blue Jays, and fans were even tracking what they believed was Ohtani’s plane en route to Toronto. Both bits of information ended up being erroneous (with the plane-tracking debacle coming to a particularly hilarious ending).
After Ohtani announced that he was signing with the Dodgers, the Blue Jays reportedly wondered if they had been used by him. Manoah in particular, who looks to be in much better shape for 2024, is probably looking forward to striking out Ohtani next season as revenge for putting a damper on his “I do’s.”
