Braves Today

What's the truth about Atlanta's pursuit of free agent Shohei Ohtani?

We're all starved for news, but the truth of the matter is that no one truly knows anything

Lindsay Crosby

Everything in Major League Baseball right now revolves around Shohei Ohtani. 

The two-time MVP has loomed large over the MLB Winter Meetings here in Nashville, and that's without him or his agent (reportedly) not even being in attendance. 

It's reported that he possibly met with the San Francisco Giants over the weekend, based on a photographer spotting team president Farhan Zahadi and board member (and former player) Buster Posey in full suits on Saturday afternoon as they walked into the facility and the fact that Ohtani started following team ace Logan Webb on Instagram over the weekend. 

The Toronto Blue Jays mysteriously moved their manager's availability from Monday to Tuesday late last week, and the GM met with the local beat on Monday via Zoom rather than in his suite, as is customary during the Winter Meetings. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic later reported there is reason to believe that the Blue Jays hosted Ohtani ($) at their Florida spring training complex on Monday. 

Former Atlanta Braves third base coach and new Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington fueled some speculation when asked about the chances of his team bringing back Ohtani, saying “I don’t have much to say about that yet because I don't want to let anything out the bag"

Atlanta's own official beat writers, Mark Bowman of MLB.com and David O'Brien of The Athletic, both separately threw cold water on the idea of Atlanta signing Shohei, with O'Brien explaining how Shohei's expected free agent salary and carefully controlled media access both wouldn't jive with Atlanta's clubhouse culture of daily player availability to the media and cost-controlled contracts. Bowman, perhaps more cynically, flat out denied that Atlanta's had any serious interest in adding Ohtani in the first place. 

Meanwhile, Jon Morosi of MLB Network keeps insisting that the Atlanta Braves are not only in the sweepstakes, they should be considered one of the favorites for Ohtani. 

MLB Network Insider says the Atlanta Braves are still engaged with Shohei Ohtani

Here's the truth of the matter, as best we understand it: 

No one truly knows anything

The Shohei Ohtani free agency saga has been the quietest and most secretive free agency in baseball history, and that's by design. Ohtani, a naturally private person who had carefully controlled and planned media availability as a member of the Angels, wanted it that way. 

Shoehi's agent, Nez Balelo, has reportedly specifically warned teams that any leaks concerning their pursuit of Ohtani would be held against them. 

And so no one's talking, at least publicly. And even in private, there's not a lot of conversation going on about Shohei, at least to anyone who doesn't work for the same team as whoever's doing the talking. 

We can infer from Bowman and O'Brien's comments that Ohtani isn't being pursued by Atlanta, because why else would they both have similar stories within hours of each other? 

But we don't know. Anyone who tells you that they know anything for sure about Ohtani's free agency plans, meetings, and intentions is either working off of bad information or making things up. 

And that's not satisfying, I know. Some are even arguing it's outright bad for baseball ($), which is wild. A player, leveraging their power to maintain some semblance of privacy! The horror! What will we do if we don't learn the name of his dog? 

But just know that it'll happen when it happens. And for many of the reasons discussed ad nauseam - his expected $500M+ contract, the concessions to be made to the somewhat rigid routine required for a two-way player, and the risk of a long-term deal for a player rehabbing from a Tommy John procedure, it's unlikely that as many teams are truly in the running as probably should be. 

But also know that if anyone tells you that they know what's going on with Shohei Ohtani, they're wrong. 

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Lindsay Crosby
LINDSAY CROSBY

Managing Editor for Braves Today and the 2023 IBWAA Prospects/Minors Writer of the Year. You can reach him at contact@bravestoday.com

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