The Blue Jays' next steps after Shohei Ohtani signs with the Dodgers
“”, “providerName”: “Instagram”, “providerUrl”: “https://www.instagram.com/”, “type”: “oembed”, “width”:658, “contentType”: “rich”} , {“__typename”: “Markdown”, “content”: “The Blue Jays are teetering on the summit of Mount Everest in this pursuit, especially since the division rival Yankees traded away a superstar of their own in Juan Soto and pursued an elite plan B” from This could have ended in either a save or a heartbreak with nothing happening in between, and now the Blue Jays face an offseason in which they must rebuild the hope and excitement of a national fan base, not just their roster. \n\nWith Ohtani, everything would have lived in a new light. The Blue Jays would be just a few steps away from being a legitimate World Series contender, and any team with Ohtani that aims for 90 or 100 wins every season, can turn him into the LeBron James of baseball, luring stars for title races year after year. Then there were the business considerations, with the Japanese media's focus on the city of Toronto, the Blue Jays and the newly renovated stadium full of expensive new club lounges and seats that needed to be sold.\n\nNow, we will never know.\n\nMaybe anything is still possible, but that's a hard sell right now. It'll be a tough sell until Christmas, a tough sell until the New Year, and a tough sell when the Blue Jays finally make their first move into free agency and sign someone not named Shohei Ohtani. Because they are so close to Ohtani and the Blue Jays are widely considered finalists, the Blue Jays remain on the adult table in Major League Baseball. That's where they belong after driving up payroll with several big deals in recent years, but the hard thing about having a seat at that table is that “graduation” is no longer an honor, no longer a banner, that You can hang yourself.\n\nThere are two groups: the Los Angeles Dodgers and everyone else.\n\nHowever, we've seen before that a win in the offseason rarely means much. This Blue Jays team is still so close, and general manager Ross Atkins continually returned to the existing strength of the current roster in his speech at the recent MLB Winter Meetings in Nashville, Tennessee. There are ways the Blue Jays can make this work, particularly in the trade market where they have laid extensive groundwork and free agency still holds many answers. Plus, once you've thought about spending half a billion dollars, prices down here on planet Earth don't look so scary. That's where the optimism has to live now, in a team that is fully aware that these windows won't last forever and is fully capable of easing that heartbreak, even if it takes a while.\n\nNo way will be as simple as Ohtani, However, there is no path that holds so much hope. ,“contentType”: “news”, “subHeadline”:null, “summary”: “TORONTO – For a moment it felt like anything was possible.\nThe Blue Jays had a chance to get Shohei Ohtani, the brightest star in the game world, baseball, sparking a free agent frenzy that was simultaneously the loudest and quietest in the history of the sport.\nThen, on Saturday at 3:05 p.m. ET,”,”tagline({\”formatString\ “:\”none\” })”:null,”tags”:[{“__typename”:”InternalTag”,”slug”:”storytype-article”,”title”:”Article”,”type”:”article”},{“__typename”:”TeamTag”,”slug”:”teamid-141″,”title”:”Toronto Blue Jays”,”team”:{“__ref”:”Team:141″},”type”:”team”},{“__typename”:”ContributorTag”,”slug”:”keegan-matheson”,”title”:”Keegan Matheson”,”type”:”contributor”},{“__typename”:”TaxonomyTag”,”slug”:”apple-news”,”title”:”Apple News”,”type”:”taxonomy”},{“__typename”:”PersonTag”,”slug”:”playerid-660271″,”title”:”Shohei Ohtani”,”person”:{“__ref”:”Person:660271″},”type”:”player”}]”type”: “story”, “thumbnail”: “https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/upload/{formatInstructions}/mlb/ejr5amlbaszoixsuuwpr”, “title”: “Blue Jays' next steps , after Shohei Ohtani signs with the Dodgers”}},”Person:660271″:{“__typename”:”Person”,”id”:660271},”Team:119″:{“__typename”:”Team”,” id “:119},”Team:141”:{“__typename”:”Team”, “id”:141}}} window.adobeAnalytics = {“reportingSuiteId”: “mlbglobal08, mlbcom08”, “linkInternalFilters”: “mlb ” } window.globalState = {“tracking_title”: “Major League Baseball”, “lang”: “en”} window.appId = '' /*–>*/
December 9, 2023
TORONTO — For a moment, it felt like anything was possible.
The Blue Jays had a chance to sign Shohei Ohtani, the brightest star in baseball, sparking a free-agent frenzy that was simultaneously the loudest and quietest in the history of the sport.
Then, on Saturday at 3:05 p.m. ET, an Instagram post. Ohtani himself announced that he was signing a contract worth $700 million over ten years with the Dodgers, the largest contract in the history of North American professional sports.
For Blue Jays fans, it was like opening Instagram and seeing the person of their dreams posing with someone else, with a sparkling engagement ring in the foreground and a diamond the size of an orange.
It is hope that kills, and there has never been a greater hope than Ohtani.
“Shohei and I would like to thank all the organizations that have reached out to us for their interest and respect,” Ohtani’s agent Nez Balelo of CAA said in a statement, “especially the wonderful people we have gotten to know even better through this process. “unfolded.”
The Blue Jays are teetering on the summit of Mount Everest in this pursuit, especially since the division rival Yankees traded away a superstar of their own in Juan Soto and took an elite “Plan B” off the market. That could have ended in either a save or heartbreak with nothing happening in between, and now the Blue Jays face an offseason in which they must rebuild the hope and excitement of a national fan base, not just their roster.
With Ohtani everything would have lived in a new light. The Blue Jays would be just a few steps away from being a legitimate World Series contender, and any team with Ohtani that aims for 90 or 100 wins each season can turn him into the LeBron James of baseball, year after year year attracts stars for the title race. Then there were the business considerations, with the Japanese media's focus on the city of Toronto, the Blue Jays and the newly renovated stadium full of expensive new club lounges and seats that needed to be sold.
Maybe anything is still possible, but that's a hard sell right now. It'll be a tough sell until Christmas, a tough sell until the New Year, and a tough sell when the Blue Jays finally make their first move into free agency and sign someone not named Shohei Ohtani. Because they are so close to Ohtani and the Blue Jays are widely considered finalists, the Blue Jays remain on the adult table in Major League Baseball. This is where they belong after they have increased the payroll with several major deals in recent years. The difficult thing about having a seat at this table is that “graduation” is no longer an honor, no longer a banner to hang.
There are two groups: the Los Angeles Dodgers and everyone else.
However, we've seen before that a win rarely means much in the offseason. This Blue Jays team is still so close, and general manager Ross Atkins continually returned to the existing strength of the current roster in his speech at the recent MLB Winter Meetings in Nashville, Tennessee. There are ways the Blue Jays can make this work, particularly through the trade market, where they have laid extensive groundwork and free agency still holds many answers.
Plus, once you've thought about spending half a billion dollars, prices down here on planet Earth don't look so scary. That's where the optimism has to live now, in a team that is fully aware that these windows won't last forever and is fully capable of easing that heartache, even if it takes a while.
However, no path will be as easy as Ohtani, and no path holds as much hope.