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Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Analyst
NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Let us get this out of the way: No one at the MLB winter conferences is familiar with what Shohei Ohtani is contemplating.
Any one who tells you in any other case is either (1) Ohtani himself (2) Ohtani’s agent Nez Balelo (3) a baseball government talking out of transform (4) lying (5) a clairvoyant. But Ohtani’s commitment to privateness has not stopped the waterfall of speculation, as multiple resources indicated to FOX Sporting activities that Ohtani to the Los Angeles Dodgers continues to be the most possible consequence.
Why?
There just isn’t any new reasoning outside of the obvious, over and above what you’ve got currently heard. The flow of info out of Ohtani-land is so confined, even for people in the industry floating all over the significant Opryland vacation resort in Tennessee web hosting this year’s meetings. But the frustrating consensus from people all around the baseball universe is that Los Angeles need to continue to be deemed the entrance-runner.
The Dodgers have the need, the cash, the major-market place pull and show up to have crafted their offseason about reeling in the greatest fish. Their desire will make all the perception in the world. To be honest, each solitary ballclub has curiosity the Dodgers also have the motive and the means.
But the inevitability of Shohei to Chavez Ravine assumes just one massive not known: He would like to be there.
The Dodgers became the front-runner due to the fact they can offer you Ohtani all the things he could want. An monumental bag of Benjamins? Check. A aggressive roster that helps make the playoffs every 12 months? Certainly. An spectacular organizational lifestyle with a monitor record of obtaining the most out of players? Yup. A perception of continuity in the convenience of Southern California that Ohtani has grown utilised to more than the last couple seasons? Indeed. A substantial Japanese populace in a city on the West Coast? Totally.
The Dodgers have almost everything that we believe Ohtani wishes, but imagine is the critical phrase there. At this issue, it truly is however all speculation. In a the latest ESPN+ documentary, the Japanese superstar explained that his decision to sign with the Angels back in 2017 was largely because his intuition and instinct advised him to. Ohtani got a excellent vibe from that organization. He dependable his intestine.
What’s to say he will not get that vibe this time about from any number of groups? What if his conference with Farhan Zaidi in San Francisco went properly? What if the Braves pitching mentor blew him absent? Any variety of things could tip the scales in any range of instructions. It really is just that the Dodgers’ structural positive aspects give them a leg up, a head get started.
But the Dodgers experienced all of individuals obvious advantages in 2017, far too. And still, Ohtani zagged still left and shocked the baseball planet. He could incredibly properly do so yet again. Of course, the universal DH, which did not exist in 2017, gives the Dodgers a different dynamic this time, but Ohtani’s tastes and intentions are shrouded in mystery. That so many people today in Nashville are predicting the Dodgers does not actually do something further than continuing to make anticipations.
Jake Mintz, the louder 50 percent of @CespedesBBQ is a baseball writer for FOX Sporting activities. He performed college baseball, inadequately at 1st, then incredibly perfectly, quite briefly. Jake life in New York Town wherever he coaches Minimal League and rides his bike, at times at the very same time. Comply with him on Twitter at @Jake_Mintz.
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