Will Ohtani Sign with the Blue Jays?

Shohei Ohtani throws right-handed but is a left-handed hitter. (Toru Takahash/AP)

I want to live in the dimension Ohtani gets signed by the Jays. But that's like saying I want to live in the universe where the Jays are a big market team that drafts the best players and signs the best players and wins the World Series all the time. That universe exists, but the team is called the New York Yankees instead.

If Jays are looking to build a winning team, we need a solid #1 or #2 starter. Texas (Darvish), Dodgers (Maeda), Seattle (Iwakuma), Yankees (Tanaka) payed big on them, and all turned out pretty good. With the proven track record of Japanese pitchers, it's a no-brainer to spend big on probably the best prospect the world has ever seen: Ohtani. The versatile athlete can pitch over 100mph, with amazing breaking balls, and can hit DH when he's not pitching.

I think he wants to go to the American League where he can DH a lot. We missed out on Darvish, and it's looking like it was a good thing we didn't pay Tanaka with all of his early arm problems. With Ohtani, even with an injury in the arm, he can still hit (That's literally what he's doing right now - he's taking a break from pitching cause of his recent injury).

In the AL, he would be a serviceable middle-to-lower tier DH as well as an amazing pitcher, and also frees up a bench spot. The teams he is competing against have someone who is equal or better to him starting as the opposing DH.

Whereas in the NL, he can pitch every 5th day, AND pinch-hit every single day in a role where he is undoubtedly better than just about any other pinch-hitter in the rest of the NL. To an NL team, that uses their entire bench each game throughout pitching substitutions, having an extra bench player to play matchups is a huge advantage. Then, when an NL team plays interleague and needs to use the DH, Ohtani bats the full game and the NL team is not sitting short by one extra "slugger".

I think he's worth much more to an NL team than to an AL team. However since money doesn't matter at all, his "value" won't necessarily carry the result.

Ohtani has been very clear since forever that his primary goal is to be the best baseball player in the world. His Japanese team convinced him not to jump straight to MLB and stay in Japan because they offered him a chance to be a two-way player, the opportunity to learn from the same pitching coach that Darvish trained under, and the challenge to become the best in Japan first.

What do the Jays have to offer that will help Ohtani become better than Clayton Kershaw on the mound, or better than Giancarlo Stanton at the plate? There is very little reason for him to sign with the Jays. He would probably want to go to a team whose window of contention is wide open so that he doesn't spend his prime on losing teams. He would also want to go to teams that are willing to give him a huge contract extension. The Jays historically aren't a team that gives out mega-contracts, and especially not to pitchers.

The only way the Jays actually land Ohtani is by making the pitch that by joining the Jays, he becomes the face of the franchise, which is then marketable from coast to coast across Canada. Throw in the allure his background would have to the large Asian population in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada and make sure Rogers is prepared to throw mega bucks his way for a lucrative endorsement deal. Surely the Jays pitch this idea to HQ as a possible campaign to pry Asian customers away from Bell et al. A marketable baseball star the likes of which Canada has never seen would then lead to other national endorsement deals from various companies.

We can dream can't we?