Mets make another peripheral signing, and weird day for Shohei Ohtani and baseball
The Mets added to the fringes by signing an outfielder to a minors deal
What’s Up with the Mets? 🍎
The Mets signed OF Taylor Kohlwey to a minor league contract and invited him to big league camp
Edwin Díaz believes he is 100% ready and should have a normal spring training (Newsday)
What on earth happened yesterday with Shohei Ohtani? ✍️
First off, I wish this had more to do with the Mets, but it doesn’t. It is, however, something that’s on my mind, so why not spew out a few words on a quiet Saturday morning since it is baseball related, it is market related, and its about the most interesting free agent, like, ever.
It started off yesterday with MLB Network’s JP Morosi reporting that Shohei Ohtani was close to a decision, which could in fact come on Friday. Then others began reporting a decision was close, so close that JP Hoornstra from Dodgers Nation said he was certain to sign with the Blue Jays after Morosi said Toronto was in fact a finalist.
Many reporters shot Hoornstra’s reporting down, stating that while Ohtani was close to deciding he had not decided to sign with Toronto, including Sportsnet and ESPN.
But that’s when all of this actually got interesting.
Morosi than reported Ohtani was en route to Toronto from his home in Southern California, which sent the X-Verse (Twitterverse sounds better) into a frenzy.
People began posting screen shots from Flight Aware of planes traveling from Orange County, California to Toronto, most of which were private jets, which only added to the speculation and intrigue Ohtani was indeed signing with Toronto.
The plane landed in Toronto (I think), but there was no Ohtani.
USA Today then poured cold water on the whole thing, stating not only was Ohtani not in Toronto, he wasn’t going to Toronto and was still home in California. So did the New York Post, and that pretty much let the air out of the balloon for everyone, specifically Blue Jays fans who got all hyped and excited they were getting baseball’s best player.
Later, Morosi retracted his reporting and apologized for the whole ordeal, a classy move if you ask me.
For what it’s worth, this is one of the reasons I never liked the Breaking News business. For fear of being misinformed or flat out used as a pawn, I keep the specifics of anything I may know or not know to myself and instead offer context and insight on what the Mets may or may not be doing, leaving it to you, the audience to read and interpret.
Sometimes I’m on target, sometimes I’m not. But the stakes are high in the Breaking News business, and I recognize that not only can misinformation impact me, but it can impact the person or people such information is about. I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of something like that, whether I was just the normal guy I am with a stack of bills the size of Alaska, or Ohtani who is very likely to become the richest baseball player ever.
This isn’t a knock on Morosi or anyone who gets bits of information wrong and/or are misinformed by any means. It’s a part of Morosi’s job to be a Breaking News guy, and unfortunately sometimes people get it wrong even when they’re sure they have it right. It’s happened to Jon Heyman (Arson Judge to the Giants, anyone?), it’s happened to Ken Rosenthal, it’s happened to me and I don’t try and break any news in baseball. I don’t think Morosi was going on anything that wasn’t reputable, and in another world where social media doesn’t exist, this situation never escalates beyond the point where he essentially said, ‘Ohtani’s decision is coming soon.’
For every bit he has wrong, he has 100 bits of information that are right.
But that’s not the world we live in, is it? We live in a world where if we even spell a word wrong in a tweet, we have 100 people telling us what kind of illiterate idiots we are.
Morosi is an outstanding reporter, a very positive person, and is someone we all should continue to rely on for this kind of news. This happens - risk is part of the Breaking News game.
Back to this saga with Ohtani for a moment…
I seriously couldn’t believe MLB Twitter was watching and tracking flights to Toronto from SoCal on Friday. I mean, really? I can’t wrap my head around that kind of behavior. Especially since everyone was pretty much guessing which flight Ohtani was on.
There are 20 million things which are more relevant to each and every one of us than what flight Ohtani might be on to go sign a nine-figure contract somewhere in North America, and this is what was being posted, discussed and tracked minute-by-minute on MLB Twitter.
Amazing. Imagine what the people on those flights might’ve been thinking, assuming any one of them actually saw what was happening on social media.
One of the main reasons why I was tracking the story (not the flight) was because I was hopeful it would happen so to break the ice in the free agent market, specifically for the Mets who have yet to make a major acquisition due to this market freeze. There was still a small part of me hoping it would be the Mets with Ohtani even though the rest of me slapped my head back into reality. I even got a few messages yesterday basically asking, ‘could Ohtani have chosen New York?’
Nah, not this player it would seem. And that’s fine. I always say that in addition to the money, it’s important for a player to actually want to be with a team. The Mets could outbid anyone for Ohtani, but that doesn’t mean he has any interest in coming to the Mets.
It takes two to tango and by all accounts, Ohtani is a quiet person who just wants to go about his business on the baseball field and doesn’t want to have much media engagement. That probably means New York is not a fit on its most fundamental level for him. I’m not sure he would have a much different experience if he joined the Dodgers, but we all know for sure how it is here and in Philadelphia and Boston.
It’s just disappointing that one of the best players ever probably won’t be signing with the Mets, unless this strange free agency comes hard about with a twist.
Anyway, it was a super weird day in baseball, and we find ourselves right where we were before it all unfolded. Ohtani is still a free agent, and the market he is in remains frozen.
Hot Stove 🔥
The Red Sox got Tyler O’Neill from the Cardinals for Nick Robertson and Victor Santos
The Braves got David Fletcher and Max Stassi for minor leaguers Evan White and Tyler Thomas
The Royals are looking for starting pitching and have expressed interest in Seth Lugo (Athletic)
The Mariners and Diamondbacks are showing interest in signing Jorge Soler (Athletic)