The entire baseball world has been sitting on the edge of their seats awaiting Shohei Ohtani’s free agent decision, including other MLB players such as former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood.
With expectations that Ohtani would reveal his new destination on Friday, people were feverishly searching for news on a minute-by-minute basis. Wood spent the afternoon on X, formerly known as Twitter, mashing the refresh button.
I’ve refreshed my twitter feed so many times today trying to see where Ohtani is going to sign lol.
— Alex Wood (@Awood45) December 8, 2023
One of us! One of us!
MLB Network insider Jon Morosi briefly sent social media into a frenzy by reporting that Ohtani was en route to Toronto, which Dodgers beat writer J.P. Hoornstra also suggested. Those reports led fans to track flights headed to Toronto, believing Ohtani was on them.
Ultimately, both Morosi and Hoornstra had gotten it wrong with Morosi even issuing a somber apology.
The rush to break the Ohtani news resulted in some unfortunate misinformation, but that’s also part of the fun in a way. Neither Morosi nor Hoornstra intended to deceive fans and all of them will be back on social media over the weekend, Wood included, refreshing over and over again in attempt to determine Ohtani’s next team.
