Shohei Ohtani ‘meets with Blue Jays brass in Florida’ as top MLB free agent is rumored to be attracting offers approaching $600MILLION… even though the injured two-way star won’t be healthy enough to pitch until 2025
- The two-way star is rumored to be attracting offers in excess of $600 million.
- He had elbow surgery this offseason that will keep him off the mound until 2025.
- READ MORE: Shohei Ohtani Believed To Select Team In Coming Days
Even with his on-field reputation cut in half by elbow surgery, Shohei Ohtani remains the most coveted free agent in baseball.
Contract offers are rumored to be in the region of $600 million, and according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the two-way sensation is believed to have met with Toronto Blue Jays officials at the team’s spring training complex in Dunedin, Florida.
Rosenthal further reports that Ohtani has met with more than one club so far, although the exact timing of his plans to become a free agent has not been disclosed. In typical Ohtani fashion, Japan’s most celebrated athlete has refrained from releasing – or even leaking – any details about his ongoing free agent tour.
The possibility remains that the 2023 American League MVP could re-sign with the Los Angeles Angels, for whom he spent his first six MLB seasons as one of the best hitters and pitchers in the game.
But there are reportedly plenty of other contenders, including the Blue Jays, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners and Chicago Cubs—teams that don’t appear to be concerned that Ohtani will be strictly the designated hitter for the foreseeable future after his second Tommy John surgery.
29-year-old two-way star Shohei Ohtani is rumored to be attracting offers in excess of $600 million.
And even when Ohtani returns from elbow surgery, which is not expected to happen until 2025, concerns remain about his future as a pitcher.
Few hurlers have successfully returned from two Tommy John surgeries, although that list includes Texas Rangers shortstop Nathan Eovaldi, who won a pair of World Series titles after his second TJ procedure in 2016.
The Blue Jays’ interest in Ohtani reportedly comes as the team’s home stadium, Rogers Center, is undergoing a $300 million renovation.
Meanwhile, baseball’s winter meetings are underway in Nashville, where Ohtani and fellow Japan teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto are said to be holding down the free agent market.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto (pictured) is the second biggest name on the free agent market.
Newspapers across Japan celebrated Shohei Ohtani’s second American League MVP award.
Fans in Oshu, Japan rejoice as Shohei Ohtani wins his second AL MVP award.
“The conversation may be a little slower than usual in the winter meetings,” New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said Monday.
“It’s possible that yes, the top of the free agent market hasn’t moved yet, and it often takes the top of the free agent market to move for the rest of the dominoes to fall.”
Curiously absent from the winter meetings was Nez Balelo, Otani’s representative at the Creative Artists Agency. While other high-profile agents such as Scott Boras are traditionally very visible during annual conferences, Balelo remained a ghost.
Besides Ohtani and Yamamoto, other top free agents include several Boras clients such as outfielder Cody Bellinger, third baseman Matt Chapman and pitchers Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery.