Shohei Ohtani’s Real Reason For Picking Dodgers Over Blue Jays

Shohei Ohtani agreed to a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers this weekend. In doing so, he ended an incredible 48 hours of speculation regarding where he would ultimately play next.

Not since the topic of the 29-year-old’s girlfriend trended online had he been the subject of such intense scrutiny.

As Ohtani’s free agency progressed, he eventually narrowed his options down to just two: the Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays.

The latter squad, who hadn’t received international prominence since a pair of fans decided to get openly frisky in the stands, became the talk of the town.

When a false report suggested that Ohtani was headed to Toronto late Friday, Blue Jays fans began to get legitimately excited about the prospect of baseball’s best player joining their franchise.

Of course, that didn’t end up happening. Instead he decided to stay in L.A.

So what went wrong?

It didn’t take long for fans on social media to discern the real reason why Ohtani opted to play for the Dodgers rather than the Blue Jays.

Drake posted this on his IG story yesterday 😅

Today Shohei announced he was going to the Dodgers pic.twitter.com/BvUlxQX6lB

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 9, 2023

The Drake curse is real https://t.co/6HNMx9MEcv

— IVAN? (6-6) 🐝🇨🇦🇨🇱 (@Manic_Madman) December 10, 2023

The Drake curse continues https://t.co/SGl8WJEXVQ

— Jose (@MalditoBeto) December 10, 2023

Whether the Drake curse truly is or isn’t the reason for Ohtani’s decision is obviously open to interpretation, but it is as valid a theory as any other.

The other possibility is that nobody else, including the Blue Jays, was willing to offer Ohtani $700 million.

Deion Sanders Dumped Longtime Girlfriend For Model? (Photos): https://t.co/ackF7Qun3Q

— Game 7 (@game7__) December 10, 2023

It could be that, too.

One way or the other, Ohtani will be suiting up for the Dodgers come next season. Will the Blue Jays come to rue the day they couldn’t close the sport’s biggest star when they had the opportunity to do so? Time will tell.

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Carlos Garcia

A longtime Sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB Games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.