Shohei Ohtani has officially made his decision on where he will play in 2024 and beyond.
The two-time AL MVP and superstar free agent agreed to a historic 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday, ending months of speculation about where the dual phenom will continue his MLB career.
The Giants were among the teams heavily pursuing Ohtani this offseason, and by all indications, they were one of the last few teams in contention for his services.
However, the New York Post's Jon Heyman joined MLB Network's “MLB Tonight” after the Ohtani news broke and offered some insight into where the Giants might have landed in the Ohtani sweepstakes.
“I'll tell you what I know, but obviously no one will know much because it's been kept secret,” Heyman shared. “My understanding is that the Dodgers didn't know they were going to get him until late last night, so it was either very late last night or this morning when it became apparent that the Dodgers became the team they knew they would be.” Shohei Ohtani got.”
“And as far as I know, there were three finalists: the Angels, the Blue Jays and the Dodgers. Certainly the Blue Jays were clearly in the running and so were the Angels. And the Giants and the Cubs, you could probably call them “finalists.” There were five teams.”
As Heyman mentioned, the Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Angels – not the Giants – were the final three teams Ohtani had to choose between before ultimately choosing the Dodgers Blue.
It remains to be seen when San Francisco and the Chicago Cubs are officially out of the running for Ohtani, but it appears they didn't make it to the final rose ceremony.
Given that the Giants have finished second to a handful of superstar players over the years, resulting in heartbreak for a star-hungry fan base, perhaps finishing fourth or fifth might be a little less painful for fans of the Orange and Black . Or not. Actually, probably not.
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