Dave Roberts Reveals Dodgers Met With Shohei Ohtani Prior to Winter Meetings

The two sides met for a few hours at Dodger Stadium.

Well, we have our first concrete update about the Dodgers and free-agent two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani. LA manager Dave Roberts told reporters on Tuesday that the team met with Ohtani at Dodger Stadium a few days ago. He also added that the meeting seemed to go well.

Dave Roberts confirmed that:

- The Dodgers have met with Shohei Ohtani a couple days ago in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium.

- He thinks it went well. Feels confident about it.

- Meeting was lasted 2-3 hours.

- No players were present.

— Doug McKain (@DMAC_LA) December 5, 2023

Roberts made it clear that Ohtani was the Dodgers priority this winter, as most have expected. It has been long thought that the Dodgers were the favorite to sign Ohtani this winter, and now we have confirmation that the two sides did meet.

Roberts isn't known for his forthcoming nature, so it's certainly interesting that this is the info that he shared. We still have no idea if this is a good thing for the Dodgers, but we should know soon.

Many will wonder if this "leak" from Roberts will hurt the Dodgers in their pursuit of Ohtani, but he knows better than to do anything to hurt the team. Ohtani's camp had previously warned that any leaks about meetings would be used against teams, but this far into the process, it's unlikely to be the case.

It seems that the free agency of Ohtani is coming to a head, and meetings are being noted left and right. The Dodgers have as good of a chance to land the biggest free agent in the history of the spot as any, and we are all waiting patiently to see what happens from here.

Dave Roberts says he doesn’t know when Ohtani will make a decision but hope it’s soon

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 5, 2023

There are other teams in the bidding still, and some with great chances as well. But we can hope that when all the smoke clears, Ohtani will become a member of the Dodgers for the foreseeable future.