Shohei Ohtani's latest Blue Jays praise won't make the pain of free agency go away

This past winter, Shohei Ohtani's exclusive free agency chase came down to a choice between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays. Much like the coaching carousel in college sports, fans turned to flight trackers to determine exactly where Ohtani would land. A private jet from California to Toronto thought to be carrying Ohtani was instead a false alarm, much to the chagrin of Blue Jays fans.

Ohtani did very little to encourage that sort of behavior, but it didn't make the sting of losing out on the two-way star at the last minute go away. Blue Jays fans thought they had Ohtani. Heck, even some team employees thought Ohtani was headed north of the border. Instead, he signed with the powerhouse Dodgers, a move we should've seen coming from a mile away.

Shohei Ohtani eager for trip to Toronto to play Blue Jays

Marred in a gambling scandal involving his former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara to start the season, Ohtani is now just happy to focus on baseball, even if that means taking questions on his first visit to Toronto since turning the Blue Jays down in free agency.

“I was as surprised as any fan, in terms of news that was going around,” Ohtani said, per The Athletic. “But I did meet with the Blue Jays organization. The impression that I got was that it was a really, really great organization. The fans are really good, too. Love the city, too. So I’m really looking forward to going to Toronto.”

As much as Ohtani loves the city and organization, baseball fans in Toronto will more likely than not greet him with boos, and lots of 'em. It's not Ohtani's fault that the national media got carried away, so much so that one reporter said a Blue Jays deal was done, and another reported Shohei was in fact on the way to Toronto. It doesn't make losing out on a generational talent any easier, however.

Ohtani signed with the Dodgers, a team that had scouted him for more than a decade dating back to his days in Japan. Los Angeles missed out on Ohtani when he was initially posted, but refused to let that happen again. They played by Ohtani's rules, and gave him the largest contract in MLB history. There's little the Blue Jays could do to match that level of preparation.