Wild Shohei Ohtani rumor prematurely circulates, sends baseball world into a frenzy

The entire baseball world was turned upside down on Friday when a report began circulating that Shohei Ohtani was signing with the Toronto Blue Jays. J.P. Hoornstra of Dodger Nation wrote an article stating that he had been told the Dodgers missed out on the two-way phenom.

Naturally, this kickstarted the best 5 to 10 minutes of most Blue Jays fans lives, as they believed one of the greatest talents to ever play the game was coming north of the border. After a few minutes passed and no other reports came out, questions were being asked by many.

Sportsnet's Ben Nicholson-Smith revealed just about 10 minutes later that no decision has officially been made by Ohtani yet, putting an end to all of our hopes and dreams.

For what it's worth, the last time BNS said "we'll see where it leads" was in January of 2021, shortly before the Blue Jays came away with stud outfielder George Springer.

Around the same time, Alden Gonzalez of ESPN reported the same thing that BNS had heard. Jeff Passan, everyone's favorite insider, retweeted Gonzalez's posted, adding more validity to it.

While this means that Ohtani is not officially a member of the Blue Jays, the door is very much still open for a potential union. With the possibility of him being on a flight from Anaheim to Toronto at this very moment, there's still plenty of time for a signing to become official between the two sides.

Per the latest reports on the rumor mill, the Blue Jays and Dodgers are the favorites to land the superstar's services, while each of the Giants, Cubs, Mariners and Angels are still "in" on him to varying degrees. On Friday morning, MLB insider Jon Morosi suggested that Ohtani's final decision was "imminent", which has ultimately done nothing but boost everyone's hopes

It remains to be seen just where this saga will go, but for now we should all just hope that Blue Jays fans did not fall victim to this year's version of "Arson Judge".