Rumors, drama squarely in the past as Ohtani, Dodgers head to Toronto (2024)

This time, Shohei Ohtani is on the flight to Toronto.

The Dodgers’ charter pointed north after their series in Washington wrapped on Thursday, setting up a weekend series that Blue Jays fans have had circled in red since the day Shohei Ohtani went from the next great hope of the franchise to the one that got away.

“Did he sign there?” joked Blue Jays manager John Schneider on Wednesday.

The heartbreak hasn’t gone anywhere, but clearly, there’s no ill will.

“No. If anything, just tell him we want our Blue Jays hat back that he took with him after our meeting,” Schneider quipped.

The Ohtani drama simmered through the early days of last offseason before completely boiling over in one of the strangest weeks in Blue Jays history. There may never be another pursuit like it. Honoring Ohtani’s wishes to keep negotiations private, the Blue Jays tiptoed around acknowledging the elephant in the room, which led to an unforgettable moment at the 2023 Winter Meetings in Nashville when Ross Atkins’ scheduled, in-person media availability was suddenly moved to a Zoom video call.

Atkins sat in front of a blank white wall with no defining features and wouldn’t reveal his whereabouts, but it was easy to speculate. He was courting Ohtani, the brightest star in the sport.

Pandemonium set in on Dec. 8, following an inaccurate report that morning that Ohtani had reached an agreement with the Blue Jays and a subsequent inaccurate report that he was on a flight to Toronto. Suddenly, the eyes of a nation of baseball fans were glued to online flight trackers, with some fans in the area of Toronto’s Pearson International Airport even timing it to watch the plane fly overhead as it passed.

“I was just following the news. I knew I wasn’t on that flight, so I was curious too,” Ohtani said Wednesday through interpreter Will Ireton.

Of course, Ohtani wasn’t on the plane. The very next morning, Ohtani announced in an Instagram post -- keeping full control over his own, league-altering news -- that he was signing with the Dodgers. The 10-year, $700 million deal is the richest in baseball history, blowing everything else out of the water.

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

While everyone is saying the right things going into the series, this hasn’t gone away and won’t for years. This changed the course of both franchises, but the fans -- particularly those in Canada who were led to believe in a future that never became a reality -- could make their feelings known when Ohtani steps to the plate for the first time at Rogers Centre.

“It might be a little different,” Schneider said, “especially with those 12 or 24 hours in Toronto in December. Hopefully they give it to him a little bit, but man, he’s a hell of a player. He’s a great player. You don’t like watching him from the other dugout, but you have to appreciate how good he is. It will be interesting to see how the fans welcome him.”

As Schneider noted, it’s nearly impossible to not appreciate what Ohtani has done on the field through 27 games this season with the Dodgers. He's third in the Majors in OPS (1.109) and batting average (.358) and has hit 14 doubles, five more than any other player in the league.

In just about every way, Ohtani has been as good as advertised. In a short period of time, he has shown the Dodgers why he was worth the $700 million deal he got this winter. Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, this weekend could also serve as a reminder why he was worth the flight tracker drama back in December.

“I think he should get a fine reception,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who said he was playing golf while the world tracked the plane. “A lot of that stuff that kind of came out wasn’t his doing. So it’s not like he disrespected the fan base at all. He entertained them and had nice things to say about them. So I expect him to be just fine.”