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TORONTO – Toronto Blue Jays brass used all of the bells and whistles once they tried to land two-way celebrity Shohei Ohtani within the fall of 2023.
The once-in-a-lifetime pursuit of the Japanese free agent, as creator Keegan Matheson writes in his new e-book, “The Franchise: Toronto Blue Jays,” included taking Ohtani, his agent and interpreter on the time on a tour of the workforce’s renovated participant growth complicated, full with a number of particular touches.
Three lockers within the clubhouse have been put aside for Ohtani, together with jerseys, gear, hats, baggage and equipment. It was all a part of an elaborate effort to promote him on the workforce.
An impressed Ohtani — whose camp wished whole secrecy all through the method — walked out of the Dunedin, Fla., facility with baggage of workforce gear and a Blue Jays hat on his head, Matheson writes.
Ohtani stopped to take footage together with his interpreter, who was additionally sporting some Toronto package. The celebrity’s canine, “Decoy,” got here operating out to affix them in a Canadian canine jacket the Blue Jays had purchased for him.
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“I think that the presentation they gave Ohtani was incredibly impressive and they were not the No. 2 team just to be strung along and used as the other person at the bargaining table,” stated Matheson. “They were No. 2 because they almost signed him.”
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The behind-the-scenes color and particulars from Matheson’s interviews and descriptions carry an intriguing, memorable and downright surreal chapter within the workforce’s close to half-century historical past to life.
Ohtani would ultimately signal a 10-year, US$700-million cope with the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was an enormous blow for Canada’s lone big-league workforce and its countrywide contingent of supporters.
The Blue Jays would ultimately signal an enormous fish of their very own, locking up star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a 14-year extension final April value a workforce document $500 million. The megadeal helped soothe any lingering ache from the Ohtani scenario and likewise confirmed the franchise was keen to spend large in an effort to be a constant contender.
But that Ohtani low season — from a weird Zoom name with basic supervisor Ross Atkins to the misguided report that Ohtani had chosen the Blue Jays and was on a airplane to Toronto — was the “strangest experience” Matheson expects to have as a reporter.
“The game that went into it was really fascinating,” Matheson stated in a current interview. “Trying to function in secrecy in a world the place we need to know all the things that’s happening together with your favorite workforce and together with your favorite participant.
“This was more of a TV drama and the amount of work that went into keeping it secret fascinates me.”
The e-book additionally explores the workforce’s early days, the playoff successes within the early Nineties, the near-misses within the earlier decade, and lots of the gamers — on and off the sector — who made all of it occur.
The tales and anecdotes will not be at all times the plain ones.
From gamers sipping hen noodle soup at a frigid Exhibition Stadium, to amusing tales of manager-athlete dynamics, to the homecoming after a 670-day break between dwelling video games attributable to COVID-19, Matheson touches all of the bases.
“Instead of asking a pitcher why he lost or asking someone why they struck out three times, this was an opportunity to ask someone, ‘Hey, tell me about the best days of your life,’” stated Matheson, who covers the workforce for MLB.com.
“Tell me about that memory that everyone always asks you about at the bar, at golf tournaments and coffee shops.”
“The Franchise: Toronto Blue Jays,” a 302-page e-book revealed by Triumph Books, is obtainable now at a retail worth of $38.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed June 11, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press