Shohei Ohtani Reveals When He Decided to Sign With the Dodgers

This was a surprising comment.

It always felt like Shohei Ohtani donning the Dodger Blue was inevitable. 

Even back in July, when the Angels chose not to ship him at the deadline, much of the focus was on how that would impact his potential offseason signing with LAD. 

But perhaps, it wasn't as inevitable as we thought. In Ohtani's press conference today, he revealed that he made his decision "the night before" he made the announcement.

This indirectly confirms some rumors that the Toronto Blue Jays, among other teams, were firmly in the race for the superstar. 

The Dodgers still being able to land him makes it all the more bittersweet, but the idea that he was clearly incredibly close to signing elsewhere wasn't something that had much traction earlier on. 

Of course, Ohtani could also just be approaching this as a PR issue, as he wouldn't want to imply that his mind was already made up on signing with LAD while he was still fielding interest from other organizations. 

It's clear that one way or another, the work done by Andrew Friedman and Mark Walter was, and has been terrific – to such a degree that Ohtani's contract includes a clause to opt-out after a season in which Friedman or Walter are no longer in their positions.

The newest member of arguably the greatest lineup of all time (and certainly the greatest 1-2-3 of all time) clearly weighed the team's elite ownership and management heavily, leading much of the credit of this historic signing for Friedman and Walter.