Blue Jays: Don’t cry over the Ohtani sweepstakes

The Blue Jays were among the many teams informed that they would not be signing Shohei Ohtani, a fact that fans shouldn’t get too upset about, even if it’s disappointing.

We know one thing for sure after Sunday night, the Blue Jays will not be Shohei Ohtani’s next employer, as he and his agent informed the club he wouldn’t be signing in Toronto. Details are still emerging even as of this writing, but there were several clubs given the same unfortunate news that Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro received at the end of the weekend.

While it’s disappointing not to land the potential two-way star, there is no reason to lament the loss any further than Sunday evening, as I’m sure the front office is already moving on to other plans as well.

I’m not going to try to convince you that it’s a GOOD thing that the Blue Jays didn’t get him, but it’s not as if this is the deal breaker that would make or break the franchise for the next decade, at least I can’t see that being the case. Ohtani is definitely coveted for his upside, but it was also the cost controlled talent that appealed to the Blue Jays, and the other 29 teams in baseball. By not being willing to wait another two years, Ohtani will be paid the major league minimum next year, and will only receive a small signing bonus compared to what he could have had in two years time. Stars of his talent don’t come along at that price very often, so naturally every big league team had to at least inquire.

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While he would have been a bargain to be sure, it’s hard to say how his skillset will translate to the North American game, especially if he intends to pursue pitching and hitting as has been widely speculated. With the Nippon Ham Fighers, Ohtani only had to pitch once a week, and he’ll likely have to adjust to a five man rotation in the MLB, which is going to make hitting much more difficult for him. The schedule he used to balance hitting and pitching in Japan, simply won’t work in North America with the schedule differences.

If I’m getting a little crazy here for a moment, there’s an argument to be made (not necessarily a great one), that Ohtani’s insistence on hitting could actually be a bit of a detriment to his new team. If the Blue Jays had landed him for example, Kendrys Morales would likely have had to be traded, otherwise you’d have a bat-only asset sitting on the bench several days a week, which wouldn’t help him when it comes to getting into, or staying in a groove at the plate. For Ohtani, it’s hard to say what his DH schedule could look like, but wouldn’t it be difficult for him to get in a rhythm hitting so infrequently? For a team with a floating DH position, he could be a great addition, but as the Blue Jays are currently constructed it would have been less than ideal.

Maybe he’ll eventually drop one of the two, but the winning bidder for his services is going to have to give him a long leash, and maybe even have him admit that he can’t do it with the more intense rigours of the Major League game. In the immediate term, that could come with some frustrations, especially when you factor in that Ohtani missed most of last few with a serious ankle injury that required surgery.

Of course, this could all be an exercise in trying to make myself, and you, feel a little better about the news on Sunday night. But hey, at least the Yankees and Red Sox didn’t get him either.

Next: Blue Jays out of the running for Shohei Ohtani