The Blue Jays may have been a surprise finalist for Shohei Ohtani, who ended up taking his talents to the Dodgers, but Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins says his team’s pursuit was “authentic and real.” Toronto’s pitch just wasn’t enough, as the two-way superstar inked a 10-year, $700 million deal about 2,500 miles away.
On Wednesday, Atkins confirmed that Ohtani met with the Jays and toured their spring training facilities in Dunedin, Fla. Atkins was obviously disappointed that he wasn’t able to land Ohtani, but did not think his team was simply as leverage just to get a better offer from the Dodgers.
“Absolutely not,” he told reporters, including the Associated Press. “I feel strongly otherwise. We feel really good about the process. It was an incredible effort from ownership to business to baseball, people coming together. Not the outcome we wanted, but feel really good about the process and absolutely felt like it was authentic and real.
‘We were obviously very disappointed with the outcome and it was a very difficult phone call to receive, one of the more difficult ones in my career. At the same time, (it was an) incredible process and group effort and collaboration that I feel so good about, not only that process but what it meant to be in that position for the organization, for the city, for the country. There’s no doubt in my mind he was exceptionally attracted to this country, this city, this team. We felt incredible about the process, but we moved on.”
The Blue Jays have since re-signed center fielder Kevin Kiermaier and signed free agent utility man Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Those moves are quite a step down from Ohtani, but there’s still a good foundation. The Jays have made the playoffs three of the last four seasons and won 91 games in 2021 when they missed the postseason.
Then again, they haven’t won a playoff game since 2016, so the Ohtani swing-and-miss had to sting for the fan base.
