Shohei Ohtani ‘meets with Blue Jays brass in Florida’ as top MLB free agent is rumored to be attracting offers approaching $600MILLION… even though the injured two-way star won’t be healthy enough to pitch until 2025
- The two-time star is rumored to attract offers in excess of $600 million
- He underwent offseason elbow surgery, which will keep him off the mound until 2025
- READ MORE: Shohei Ohtani is expected to choose a team in the coming days
Even with his on-field value cut in half by elbow surgery, Shohei Ohtani remains the most coveted free agent in baseball.
With contract offers reportedly in the $600 million range, the two-way sensation is believed to have met with Toronto Blue Jays officials at the team's spring training complex in Dunedin, Florida, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
Rosenthal further reports that Ohtani has met with more than one club so far, although an exact timetable for his free-agency plans has not been revealed. In typical Ohtani fashion, Japan's most celebrated athlete has refrained from publishing – or even leaking – details of his ongoing free-agency tour.
There remains a possibility that the 2023 American League MVP will re-sign with the Los Angeles Angels, for whom he played his first six MLB seasons and was among the best hitters and pitchers in the game.
But there are also reportedly many other suitors, including the Blue Jays, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners and Chicago Cubs – teams that don't seem concerned that Ohtani will be strictly a designated hitter for the foreseeable future are after his second match. Tommy John surgery.
Two-time star Shohei Ohtani, 29, is rumored to attract offers worth more than $600 million
And even if Ohtani returns from the elbow procedure, which isn't expected to happen until 2025, concerns remain about his future as a pitcher.
Only a handful of pitchers have successfully returned from two Tommy John surgeries, although that list includes Nathan Eovaldi of the Texas Rangers, who has won a pair of World Series titles since his second TJ procedure in 2016.
The Blue Jays' interest in Ohtani comes as the team's home stadium, the Rodgers Center, is undergoing a $300 million renovation.
Meanwhile, baseball's winter meetings are taking place in Nashville, where Ohtani and fellow Team Japan pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto are expected to hold off the free agent market.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto (pictured) is the second-biggest name on the free agent market
Newspapers across Japan celebrated Shohei Ohtani's second American League MVP award
Fans in Oshu City, Japan celebrate the news that Shohei Ohtani has won his second AL MVP award
“From a winter meeting conversation standpoint, it's probably a little slower than normal,” New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said Monday.
“One possibility is that, yes, the top of the free agent market hasn't moved yet, and often it takes the rest of the dominoes to fall for the top of the free agent market to move.”
Noticeably absent from the winter meetings was Nez Balelo, Ohtani's representative at the Creative Artists Agency. While other big-name agents like Scott Boras have traditionally been highly visible at the annual conferences, Balelo has been a ghost.
In addition to Ohtani and Yamamoto, the other top free agents include several of Boras' clients such as outfielder Cody Bellinger, third baseman Matt Chapman, as well as pitchers Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery.