MLB Insider Says Cubs More Likely to Land Ohtani Than Bellinger

While the Chicago Cubs have talked about re-signing Cody Bellinger in free agency, sources familiar to the situation say they'd rather have Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani.

The Hot Stove season is full of conflicting reports about teams being interested or not interested in players. Teams willing to trade for a player or not trade for a player.

It's a circus to follow and makes this time one of the best parts of the baseball calendar.

The Chicago Cubs will be one of the those teams who has tons of speculation swirling about them throughout the offseason.

They have a lot of money to spend and are hellbent on putting together a contending baseball team after aggressively hiring a manager that should maximize whatever roster is given to him.

With that large budget, the Cubs remain in the running to re-sign their star slugger Cody Bellinger or land the best free agent in history, Shohei Ohtani.

Jesse Rogers of ESPN wrote in his latest story, "Multiple sources think the Cubs are more likely to sign Ohtani than bring Bellinger back on his own massive deal."

That is a bombshell.

Jed Hoyer has made it a point to say that re-signing their star outfielder is a top priority this offseason.

But, the Ohtani and Chicago connection goes all the way back to when he was first coming over from Japan in 2017. They were one of the seven finalists to sign the phenom and lost out to the Los Angeles Angels.

The Cubs feel like they missed massively by not signing him back then and history would show that's the case.

They are now in a position to not let that happen again.

Rogers also notes, "The Cubs have not signed a Boras client to a multiyear deal in a very long time. That includes players on the free agent market, ones they've drafted who have won an MVP (Kris Bryant) or those they've traded for who have won a Cy Young Award (Jake Arrieta). They've all moved on. Bellinger is likely to as well."

Whether Chicago is able to land the most coveted player in baseball or not will be determined by a multitude of factors.

But it seems like if they could choose, they'd take Ohtani over Bellinger.