MLB Rumors: 3 teams that may pass on Shohei Ohtani after latest injury news

Teams that may pass on Shohei Ohtani: New York Mets

The New York Mets are another team, like the Yankees, who may not want to pursue Ohtani this offseason due to his injury. The Mets need to fill many spots this offseason, including grabbing multiple starting pitchers and several arms to fill out the bullpen. They seem likely to instead choose to pursue Yamamoto this offseason, who they've been linked to multiple times already.

The problem is, unless he can remain a healthy two-way player, Shohei Ohtani isn't worth signing long-term, even for Steve Cohen and his deep checkbook. While he is one of the best hitters in baseball, he is only worth $30-40 million without the pitching upside.

On top of that, if Ohtani is, in fact, done as a pitcher, that might necessitate moving him to the outfield upon his recovery from this UCL injury. The DH is less valuable from a contract standpoint in MLB, so a team could ask for him to affect games defensively, even if he can't take the mound.

The Mets have been showing they are committed to winning, but after trading Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, they now plan to build within the organization instead of signing the biggest free agents. They could still sign many top free agents, but Ohtani might be too rich of a gamble for them to take.