Just yesterday, Shohei Ohtani was unanimously named the American League’s Most Valuable Player for the second time in three years.
By the same token, the Japanese player will undoubtedly enter the select club of only four players in the history of the MLB who left their training the following season, whether through the free agent market or that of transactions.
He will join Eddie Collins, who went from the Athletics to the White Sox in 1914 via trade, Barry Bonds, who signed with the Giants from the Pirates in 1992, Alex Rodriguez, who traveled from the Rangers to the Yankees in 2003 , then finally Giancarlo Stanton, who was traded from the Marlins to the Yankees in 2017.
The New York Yankees have found themselves on the receiving end of the last two such events, will they be again this year?
While it’s possible that Ohtani could return to the Los Angeles Angels, we need to stop telling stories. Let us instead look to the future and not to a world of unicorns.
And in the real world, the Japanese is the main target of all major baseball this off-season. If he doesn’t opt for a short-term contract that would allow him to return to the free agent market soon, he will sign the largest contract in MLB history.
The Angels therefore have no chance of bringing him back to their ranks, which places Ohtani in the group of those who probably have not been useful enough to their team for the latter to keep them on their roster…
With the propensity of certain owners to take the path of stinginess, we risk seeing this type of burlesque situation a little more often.
