MLB rumors: Shohei Ohtani decision incoming, Bellinger contract timeline, one team going for 'jugular'
- One team is out for it all at the Winter Meetings
- Cody Bellinger's contract timeline could be a source of frustration for some teams
- Shohei Ohtani's decision is coming sooner rather than later, it would appear
By Josh Wilson
Shohei Ohtani's free agency timeline
While Scott Boras may have his client Cody Bellinger elongating the market, Shohei Ohtani does not seem likely to mull around his decision for very long. Ohtani is expected to get a record-setting deal and the largest contract this offseason. Don't expect negotiations to linger.
Ben Nicholson-Smith of SportsNet suggests that the Ohtani decision could come, "soon," with several teams sending representatives to meet with Ohtani in Los Angeles this weekend. Ohtani, evidently, is not making his way to Nashville where the Winter Meetings are located. Instead, he's having teams court him. He's coveted enough to do that.
Nicholson-Smith confirms that the Dodgers are viewed as the front-runners. Several teams are in, though. Money and Ohtani's interests aside, all 30 teams would love the chance to roster a player as dynamic as Ohtani. The Blue Jays feel like a sleeper team given their massive market and ability to platform him to an entire country as the league's only Canadian ballclub.
Very little consequential information has leaked out about Ohtani and his free agency, which is not necessarily surprising considering the superstar player has a reserved personality and private lifestyle.
For now, we wait, but it sounds like we'll get the word sooner than later on his free agency.
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