By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer
TORONTO — While most of baseball is saying hats off to Shohei Ohtani, Toronto manager John Schneider wants a cap back from the two-way star.
Before signing a $700 million, 10-year contract with the Dodgers, the two-way superstar met with Blue Jays officials on Dec. 4, 2023, at the team’s spring training complex in Dunedin, Florida.
Ohtani will be the opening batter of the World Series, leading off for the defending champions against the Blue Jays on Friday night at Rogers Centre after his unprecedented performance in the clinching game of the National League Championship Series.
“I hope he brought his hat, the Blue Jay hat that he took from us in our meeting. I hope he brought it back, finally,” Schneider joked Thursday.
“And the jacket for Decoy,” he added, a reference to Ohtani’s dog, a Nederlanse kooikerhondje. “It’s like, give us our stuff back already.”
Ohtani smiled when asked about the headgear.
“It’s in my garage,” he said through a translator.
Ohtani helped lead the Dodgers to last year’s title, hitting .310 with 54 home runs, 130 RBIs and 59 stolen bases, MLB’s first 50/50 season netting him his third league MVP award (he won two with the Angels).
Back to pitching in a limited role this season as he returned from elbow surgery, he batted .282 with 55 homers, 102 RBIs and 20 steals while going 1-1 with a 2.87 ERA in 14 starts, striking out 62 in 47 innings.
Last Friday, he homered three times while pitching six shutout innings and striking 10 against Milwaukee as the Dodgers completed a four-game sweep of the NLCS.
Absent Ohtani, the Blue Jays had the finances to give first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. a $500 million, 14-year contract that begins next year, and he helped Toronto reach the World Series for the first time since 1993.
“He’s a great player,” Schneider said. “But that aside, I think that we have a great team and just an unbelievable cast of characters and players. I think things worked out the way they’re meant to work out.”
Schneider isn’t sure how close the Blue Jays came to signing Ohtani.
“When we met with him, you felt good about it, and you felt good about the feedback he was giving about our organization and opportunity here,” he said. “But you never really know what a player’s feeling in free agency, and there’s a lot of things that have to line up for them personally, too, so you can’t really think about what if. You think about the 26 (players) that we have.”
There was, as many fans of both teams surely remember, a Friday in December 2023 when many thought Ohtani was on a plane headed to Toronto to sign with the Blue Jays.
First, a user on a social media site posted that Thursday night that a private jet was scheduled to fly from Southern California to Toronto on Friday morning. Someone else discovered the same jet had been in Oakland when Ohtani had met with the San Francisco Giants.
Things were adding up, and the Dodgers Nation fan site published a report saying Ohtani had chosen the Blue Jays. Then MLB Network reported that Ohtani was traveling to Toronto. With the plane in the air, fans began assembling at the private terminal at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.
But Ohtani was not on the plane. It was “Shark Tank” judge Robert Herjavec. On that Saturday, Ohtani posted his decision on Instagram: “I have decided to choose the Dodgers as my next team.”
Ohtani praised the Blue Jays this week.
“It’s an unfortunate reality as a free agent that you get to really pick one team,” he said. “The decision had to be made, but again, this organization has been superb. They have a lot of awesome people.”
