1 free agent every team that whiffed on Shohei Ohtani must sign

Blue Jays should wipe away Ohtani tears with Cody Bellinger signing

The Blue Jays were briefly considered favorites to sign Shohei Ohtani, with rampant speculation about a (fake) flight to Toronto the day before he ultimately signed with the Dodgers from his SoCal home. With looming changes to the TV landscape in Canada, Rogers Communications — the media titan that owns the Jays — was eager to perk up Toronto's ratings with an Ohtani signing.

Instead, the Blue Jays will have to pivot to the next-best thing. The word on the street is that the Jays want a left-handed power hitter. With Ohtani and Juan Soto off the table, one would expect Toronto to make a run at Cubs outfielder Cody Bellinger, who put himself back on the map in 2023 with a monstrous run after the All-Star break. He earned his second Silver Slugger award and finished 10th in National League MVP voting.

There are notable red flags with Bellinger. He spent the two seasons prior to 2023 hitting .210 or below, and even last season he posted a worryingly low hard-hit percentage — 31.4, in the 10th percentile — for a player billed as a prime bat. But, Bellinger was also a perennial MVP candidate in his early years with the Dodgers, winning the award in 2019. When he's right, like last season, Bellinger can produce at a truly prodigious level.

He slashed .307/.356/.525 with 26 home runs and 97 RBIs in 499 ABs for the Cubs. After signing a one-year prove-it deal at the low point of his value last winter, Bellinger will be looking for massive long-term guarantees in 2024 and beyond. His contract should end up in the $200-250 million range. A lot, to be sure, but hardly a drop in the bucket for a team that was willing to potentially spend north of $600 million on Ohtani.