Yankees Reportedly Likely To Pursue Angels' Shohei Ohtani Heavily
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Is it just a matter of time before Los Angeles Angels two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani ends up in pinstripes?
The New York Yankees have long pursued the 28-year-old superstar, and will have three more shots to land him in the next year or so: this offseason, the 2023 Major League Baseball trade deadline and next offseason, when he will become a free agent. There's steam building that the Bronx Bombers will do everything in their power to add Ohtani into the fold.
"The Yankees love the great Shohei Ohtani (who doesn’t?) and tried to acquire him again at the trade deadline (after originally trying to sign him out of Japan), but multiple baseball people have expressed doubts about whether he’d want to come to New York as a free agent," the New York Post's Jon Heyman wrote.
"That doesn’t mean the Yankees won’t try for Ohtani a year from now, and people close to Ohtani maintain it’s wrong that he is anti-New York. They contend he has never expressed those sentiments, and furthermore that he’d be open-minded if he becomes a free agent. They add that he’s fully committed to the Angels for now, as his incredible performance shows."
As Heyman noted, he previously reported that the Yankees made the Angels a "serious" offer for Ohtani at the deadline, and slightly expanded on the situation.
"The Yankees were still among the most interested teams in aborted trade-deadline talks, before Angels owner Arte Moreno decided he couldn’t trade Ohtani, who has put together a second straight all-world season that would end in a second straight MVP in most other years," Heyman wrote.
Unlike Ohtani's first trip into free agency from Japan, there are no restrictions on how much he can be offered. That puts New York in an advantageous position. And while a trade this offseason should be deemed unlikely, the Angels would be remiss not to listen to offers should they find themselves in another lost season come August. New York likely would be among those first to call, as they did this summer.
Ohtani is hitting .275 with 29 doubles, six triples, 34 home runs, 94 RBIs and a .882 OPS in 154 games. Remarkably, he's been even better on the mound. The right-hander is 15-8 with a 2.35 ERA, 213-to-43 strikeout-to-walk ratio and league-leading 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings in 161 innings across 27 starts.
Should the Yankees go all-in, there will be no amount of money or trade assets deemed "too much" for his services. They should work fast, as their rival Boston Red Sox could be just as inclined to make a big move for the Japanese superstar.
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