Shohei Ohtani has officially made his decision on where he will play in 2024 and beyond.
The AL MVP and two-time star free agent agreed to a historic 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday, ending months of speculation about where the two-time phenom would continue his MLB career.
The Giants were one of the teams heavily pursuing Ohtani this offseason, and by all indications were one of the last few teams vying for his services.
However, the New York Post’s Jon Heyman joined MLB Network’s “MLB Tonight” after the Ohtani news broke and offered some insight into where the Giants may have landed in the Ohtani sweepstakes.
“I’ll tell you what I know, but obviously no one will know much because it’s been so secretive,” Heyman said. “As late as last night, my understanding is that the Dodgers didn’t know they were going to get him, so it was pretty late last night or this morning that they got together that it became the Dodgers the A team that understood they were getting Shohei Ohtani.
“And my other understanding is that there were three finalists: the Angels, Blue Jays and Dodgers. Sure, the Blue Jays were in the running and the Angels were as well. And the Giants and Cubs I guess you could call them ‘finalists’. There were five teams.”
As Heyman mentioned, the Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Angels — not the Giants — were the final three teams Ohtani was deciding between before ultimately choosing the Dodger blue dawn.
It remains to be seen when the San Francisco and Chicago Cubs officially drop out of the running for Ohtani, but it appears they haven’t advanced to the final rose ceremony.
Since the Giants have finished second to a few star players over the years, much to the chagrin of their star-hungry fan base, perhaps finishing fourth or fifth would be less annoying for fans of the orange and black. or not. Maybe not, actually.
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