Blue Jays’ Mark Shapiro breaks silence on Shohei Ohtani meeting before Dodgers signing
What could’ve been if Ohtani signed with the Blue Jays.
Shohei Ohtani was the most prized free agent we’ve seen in years this past winter, with the Los Angeles Dodgers ultimately convincing the Japanese superstar to join them as he inked a mega 10-year, $700 million deal with $680 million deferred. Anyway, one other team was in the hunt for Ohtani until the very end and that was the Toronto Blue Jays.
Reports came out that Ohtani was flying to Toronto to meet with representatives of the organization, but that turned out to be false. That being said, the two-time MVP did meet with the Blue Jays down in Dunedin, Florida at their spring training facility. President Mark Shapiro spoke for the first time on that meeting with Ohtani and his representatives during an interview on Thursday and shed light on how exciting it was to potentially sign the two-way star.
Via The Toronto Sun:
“As far as the excitement goes, there were moments, particularly when he was here in this facility that you started to (believe that) ‘well, this kind of feels like it could really happen,’ ” Shapiro said at his annual spring training meeting with the Jays beat media. “Up until the last night … I never said this guy’s coming. I just don’t do that. It’s not my nature. A deal is not done until the deal is done.”
“It was cool on a couple levels,” Shapiro said. “It was exciting to see how engaged he was about the city and how clear his understanding was about the meaning of playing for a country. It wasn’t just the anecdotal ‘you guys represent a country.’ It was like this guy had walked around Toronto. He knew neighbourhoods he had spent time. He was thoughtful. He appreciated what was unique about Toronto, the same things that we all feel are unique.
“He appreciated the diversity, the international nature, the progressiveness. He appreciated the safety, some of the differentiation from big American cities. He was specifically recognizing those things.
“So from a point of pride from someone else that chose to come there nine years ago and what it has meant to me, it was cool to see a player like him recognize that and genuinely place us at the front of the process.”
