When the Japanese Babe Ruth, Shohei Ohtani, is posted later today, the Cubs will do everything and anything they can to bring him to Chicago.
Unfortunately, thanks to their lack of a designated hitter, relatively full outfield (though maybe this isn’t as much of an issue as we originally thought), and $300K capped bonus, they’re – at best – behind the eight-ball compared to some of their American League counterparts.
But they may have finally gotten an edge:
Shohei Ohtani development: Multiple @MLB team execs believe Ohtani may actually prefer to sign with a club that doesn’t already have a Japanese star; Ohtani’s camp has not commented on that. @MLBNetwork
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) December 1, 2017
Brandon Laird, Ohtani’s teammate in Japan, gave credence to that idea, saying, “I feel like he just wants to come and not be compared to other guys who have already been here — to start fresh on his own, show what he can do by himself.” @MLB
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) December 1, 2017
Duuuuuude.
I don’t have to tell you that this is a pretty important wrinkle, but I will. This could be a big boon to the Cubs chances, and not only because they don’t have any current (or relatively recent) Japanese stars, but also because some of the Cubs’ biggest competitors for Ohtani do.
Just other day, David Kaplan suggested that the “buzz in the baseball world” is that only the Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox, Mariners, Rangers and Blue Jays have a real chance at landing Ohtani this winter.
Well, as we said, the Cubs don’t have a current (or recent) Japanese star on the roster, but the Yankees (Masahiro Tanaka) and Dodgers (Kenta Maeda) both do, and they’re also both pitchers. Meanwhile, the Rangers only just lost Yu Darvish this past season, so the superficial comparisons would *definitely* be there. And maybe the Red Sox and Mariners don’t have any current Japanese stars rostered up, but Daisuke Matsuzaka and Ichiro Suzuki are still some of the biggest well-known Japanese names associated with those teams (obviously, to varying degrees).
Am I stretching a little bit here? I don’t know. Maybe. But for a player who’s forgoing $200 million on the free agent market in two years to play in MLB right now (who also sent all 30 MLB teams a homework assignment), we have to take these preferences seriously. And for what it’s worth, Brett has been guessing this might be the case for a long while now.
For once, it seems as thought it truly is not going to be about money. So let’s see what the Cubs actually have to offer.