Blue Jays wonder if they were ‘used’ by Shohei Ohtani?

Dec 14, 2023; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers player Shohei Ohtani is introduced at a press conference at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Shohei Ohtani announced 10 days ago that he was going to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers in free agency. His announcement came a day after some wild rumors and speculation caused folks on the internet to go crazy.

All the rumors on Friday, Dec. 8 linked Ohtani to the Toronto Blue Jays. A Dodgers reporter even said that Ohtani had decided to sign with the Blue Jays.

Not only was Ohtani not flying to Toronto that day, but the Japanese star announced a day later that he was signing with the Dodgers.

So, what happened?

Did Ohtani change his mind at the last minute? Or did his agents use the threat of the Blue Jays to get what they wanted from the Dodgers? Apparently Toronto thinks the latter may have been the case.

The New York Post’s Jon Heyman published an article last week in which he said the Jays wonder if they were “used” by Ohtani’s camp.

All the Toronto-related rumors a day before Ohtani signed with the Dodgers suggest that yes, the Blue Jays were used. But Heyman dropped another nugget into his story that is even more convincing.

Heyman says a rival executive pointed out that the biggest “tell” that the Blue Jays were being used had to do with the location of Ohtani’s meeting with the team. Ohtani met with the team at their spring training facility in Dunedin, Fla. The point is that if Ohtani were really serious about signing with the Blue Jays, the meeting would have occurred in Toronto.

The logic is pretty sound.

In addition to Toronto, Ohtani was also considering the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Angels. Only one team declined to match the contract Ohtani had proposed to them. Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million deal that is effectively a 10-year, $460 million deal when the deferred money is factored in.