MLB Insider Predicts Shohei Ohtani Signs With Angels AL West Rival This Offseason

This would be terrible for the Halos..

As the Angels wait patiently for two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani to make his free agency decision, the team understands there is a good chance that he will leave this winter. The Halos failed to put together any sort of winning team with Ohtani on the roster, and it now may lead to him jumping ship.

Ohtani will have no shortage of suitors this offseason, and there are multiple teams that could entice him. His two-way abilities are unlike anything we have seen in baseball, and he truly is the best player in the game today.

MLB insider Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com put together a list of bold predictions for the offseason, and maybe his boldest yet has Ohtani heading to another AL West squad.

“Ohtani is going to the Mariners: Ohtani barely speaks to the media about non-performance-related issues, but at least he let us in a little bit and said he loves the city of Seattle. Though 2023 was a dud, the Mariners do have a strong nucleus, with an excellent rotation and Julio Rodríguez basically signed to a career-long contract. They are the forever home of Ichiro, Ohtani’s idol. They can offer Ohtani a place to be his unique and relatively reclusive self away from major media demands.”

Per Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com

If Ohtani were to sign with another AL West team, it would be a massive blow to the Angels. While the team doesn’t want him going anywhere else, having to play against him multiple times each season for the foreseeable future would be awful.

Seattle would get even stronger, and that is a scary thought considering the AL West is already very competitive. The Texas Rangers just won the World Series, and the Houston Astros won it in 2022, so this would be a terrible situation for the Halos.

They already have struggled to be competitive in the division, and this would complicate matters even more. So, hopefully, if he does indeed leave, he signs elsewhere not in the AL West.