MLB rumors: Yankees caught with bad info, Padres hire manager, baseball gets its own Uncut Gems

Yankees operating with bad information is a terrible start to free agency

When Shohei Ohtani came over to the MLB years ago, he more or less passed on teams that had interest in signing him on the East Coast and in the Midwest in favor of a pacifically-oriented team. Japanese players sometimes prefer to stake their home in the Western part of the country because it's closer to their home country. California is home to the most Japanese Americans of any state in the lower 48, so it also is easier to find a local, familiar community.

Now, Ohtani is a free agent again, six years later, and he's even more sought-after this time around. Not only is the appetite to sign him greater league-wide, but his priorities may have also changed.

Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported that he doesn't believe location is nearly as important to Ohtani as it once was. He points out that in six seasons, he has yet to play a single game in the extended part of the season. He wants to be in the playoffs, and Morosi believes the priority for Ohtani may come down to the best team build and best culture.

We learned on Sunday the Yankees were more or less looking past Ohtani in free agency because they believed he didn't want to be on the East Coast. The reason they knew that? Because it's what he told them six years ago.

As for why it didn't occur to New York that his preference may have changed after six years of naturalizing in America, who knows...

This is the same front office that passed on Bryce Harper a few years back. So it all tracks.