Blue Jays fans boo Shohei Ohtani as sting of losing out on superstar lingers

TORONTO — Toronto Blue Jays fans at the Rogers Centre lustily booed Shohei Ohtani as he came to the plate in the first inning, no doubt a result of feeling spurned by the two-way superstar after his frenzied free agency.

Ohtani’s response?

Shohei Ohtani hits a homer on his first at-bat in Toronto. pic.twitter.com/WRuagUKMpj

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 26, 2024

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ designated hitter homered on the third pitch he saw from starter Chris Bassitt, sending a solo shot into the visitors bullpen to put the Dodgers up 1-0 and grind the salt into a fine powder inside the still-fresh wounds of Toronto fans. It only went further downhill for the Blue Jays, who fell 12-2 to the Dodgers in front of a sellout crowd of 39,688 on Friday.

Ohtani and the Dodgers are visiting the Rogers Centre for the first time since the 29-year-old phenom opted to sign a record-breaking contract with Los Angeles over Toronto after an unprecedented offseason pursuit. After the game, Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton that he was “not surprised” that the fans booed him.

“I really do feel that the fans here are passionate, and when they are, that’s the kind of reception that they will probably do,” he said. “I’m just very grateful and respectful that the fans here are passionate just as much as the Dodger fans are with us.”

Ohtani’s free agency was unlike anything seen before in baseball, and his otherworldly talent all but guaranteed that whichever team signed him would set a record for the largest contract in MLB history. The Blue Jays, to the surprise of many, were right in the thick of the Shohei Sweepstakes.

Though the details of their pitch were shrouded in levels of secrecy typically reserved for members of the royal family — Ohtani’s camp reportedly advised teams to be discreet about their pursuits — the Blue Jays were putting on a full-court press to woo Ohtani, even giving him a tour of their player development complex in Dunedin, Fla., in December.

From the get-go, the Dodgers were the favourites — rightly so, as it turned out — but as reports of teams dropping out of the hunt trickled out, the Blue Jays went from a darkhorse contender to a finalist and Blue Jays fans slowly started to believe Ohtani could shock the baseball industry and take his talents north of the border.

Ohtani-mania peaked in Toronto on Dec. 8 when amateur sleuths uncovered a private plane flying from Southern California to Toronto, prompting thousands of interested observers to track the flight online. Later, an erroneous report claimed Ohtani was on the flight, which sent the speculation into overdrive.

That day, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was playing a round of golf with Brian Baumgartner, best known for playing Kevin Malone on the TV show “The Office,” when the reports of Ohtani flying to Toronto surfaced. Roberts’ phone started blowing up, and as the messages ticked up, so did his golf score.

“I had my worst round of golf ever,” the manager said before Friday’s game.

Meanwhile, Blue Jays manager John Schneider was having a more low-key day. “I was probably on my back patio having a beer,” he said. “Wasn’t tracking the flight or anything.”

After a couple of chaotic hours, it was confirmed Ohtani was not on the plane. Instead, in a strange twist, it was Canadian businessman and “Shark Tank” judge Robert Herjavec. Ohtani was watching the whole thing unfold at home. “I was just following the news,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t on that flight, so I was curious too.”

A day later, Ohtani announced he was signing a 10-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers. That put an end to the strange saga of his free agency while simultaneously breaking the hearts of many Blue Jays fans, who less than 24 hours prior had sincerely believed he was signing with Toronto. And though fans didn’t know it then, those frantic hours would prove to be the height of a fairly bland offseason with a series of floor-raising moves that barely caused a ripple compared to the seismic shift adding Ohtani would have created.

Judging from the boos and jeers Ohtani received at the Rogers Centre — first when his name was announced in the Dodgers starting lineup and then every time he came to the plate — many fans are still upset Ohtani chose the Dodgers over the Blue Jays, perhaps believing his interest was only a leverage play in negotiations.

The boo birds were out in Toronto before Shohei Ohtani's first at bat 🔊👀

(via @ByJackHarris)pic.twitter.com/i9zTfLOsac

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) April 26, 2024

“Aside from how the fans may or may not think, I’m just very grateful for the teams that approached me and wanted to sign me,” Ohtani said. “As I said in my press conference before, ultimately I could only choose one team.”

But the Blue Jays, though disappointed they lost out on him, have looked back on their quest for Ohtani fondly. General manager Ross Atkins has said the club “felt incredible about the process.”

It was a process in which Schneider truly learned that Ohtani “wants to be great and win.” How Ohtani asked questions about the organization — about its resources, its farm team and its roster — was also eye-opening.

“I think his impressions of us were really good,” Schneider said. “I think going through that when you’re talking about your own organization, you feel good about the things that you’re going over with him, or any player, and I think that he had a good impression on what we were giving him.”

For his part, Ohtani told reporters earlier this week that his impression of the Blue Jays was “a really, really great organization.”

The boos, however, didn’t seem to unnerve Ohtani, who finished the game 1-for-4 with a home run and a walk. In 14 games played at Rogers Centre in his career, Ohtani is batting .320 with five doubles, a triple, four home runs, 11 RBIs and a 1.160 OPS.

Ohtani’s season opened with the bombshell news that the Dodgers had fired his longtime friend and interpreter Ippei Mizuhara after Ohtani accused Mizuhara of stealing money from him to fund gambling debts. But a month has passed since that news broke, and Ohtani seems to have settled into a comfortable rhythm with his new team while showing exactly why he was worth the unparalleled pursuit.

Through 28 games, Ohtani is slashing .354/.419/.681 with 22 extra-base hits, including seven home runs. He’s been worth 1.7 fWAR so far, the third most in the majors, and he’s done so without even stepping foot on the mound after last year’s elbow surgery that will keep him from pitching this season. Still, Ohtani is showing the unrivalled impact he can have on a roster — and it’ll be greater once he’s pitching again.

With the 13-14 Blue Jays off to a slow offensive start and the 17-11 Dodgers looking like the juggernaut they were predicted to be, it further worsens the sting of losing out on Ohtani. Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. each have an OPS below .700 through nearly the first month of the season, and it’s easy to imagine what an offensive lift Ohtani’s 1.100 OPS could have brought to the top of Toronto’s lineup.

Ohtani’s first-inning home run served as a quick, fresh and perhaps cruel reminder of his game-changing abilities. He is a one-of-a-kind talent. And in Toronto, fans might forever look at him as the one who got away.

(Photo of Shohei Ohtani rounding the bases after his first-inning home run: Nick Turchiaro / USA Today)