There is a straight line from Shohei Ohtani’s snubbing of Toronto to the long-term signing of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. a year later.Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
The most hurtful part of the Toronto Blue Jays’ pursuit of Shohei Ohtani wasn’t that he said, ‘No’. It was that he felt sorry for them after he did it.
“Aside from how the fans may or may not think, I am just very grateful for the teams that approached me and wanted to sign me,” Ohtani said later. He’d just shown up for the first time since you know what happened and hit a home run in his first at bat.
In other words, I needed a hot date to make the L.A. Dodgers jealous enough to give me a US$700-million ring. Thanks for being that special someone.
It’s a straight line from Ohtani’s snubbing of Toronto to the long-term signing of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. a year later. Guerrero knew how much money the Jays had to spend, and was very public that he intended on extracting as much of it as possible. This put Toronto in an untenable bargaining position. Cornered and embarrassed, they gave in.
‘Ditched by the guy you want and married to the one you could get’ is not the start of a great love story. But this is the rare instance where one thing going badly wrong ended up in everybody getting what they wanted.
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The Jays are the first, biggest winners. Look at how far they’ve come.
Ohtani made them look ridiculous. Sports executives cannot afford to look ridiculous. As much as any other reason, this is why Guerrero was signed. The Jays had to convince baseball that at least one star liked them back.
There is a world in which the Jays tap the brakes just a tiny bit harder to end the regular season, miss winning the division, get knocked out by Boston in the wild card, have been getting roasted for the last two weeks and are on their way to making major changes up top. Had that happened, the string would lead back to Ohtani.
But that didn’t happen. In this Sliding Doors version of things, Alejandro Kirk saves the day, and then Guerrero goes wild. Everyone is saved and maybe much more.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has a chance to become the greatest player in Blue Jays history.Mark Blinch/Getty Images
If at some future point, Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro ends up scrambling to the top of the integrated Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment empire, he should buy Kirk an island. Just a little one.
Guerrero gets what he wanted, too. He had other options, but none of them offered the same sweet spot of celebrity, security, opportunity and money.
He could have gone to either New York club, but then forget about walking to dinner, as he does in Toronto. Now you’re not just famous, you’re stupid famous. Everything you do is being photographed and discussed. And that’s if things go perfectly.
If you’re a bust, you will hear it everywhere. Guerrero could never have another hit in a Jays uniform and 10 years from now, people would say, ‘All in all, not bad.’
It’s not like New York pays more. If anything, they’d have paid less. In Toronto, just south of Ohtani was the limit, and Guerrero got it.
In this city, Guerrero gets the chance to become the greatest player in franchise history. After the past two and a half weeks, he’s already edged up into the top five.
That opportunity was not on the table in either New York. He was never going to be Darryl Strawberry, and there are about a hundred Yankees ahead of him on any all-time list.
He made the right choice.
Toronto gets what it wanted, even if it didn’t feel like it at the time. This is not a city of big dreams and wild schemes, no matter how badly it would like to be. This is a city of sobriety, orderliness and mild resentment.
Toronto wouldn’t have known what to do with Ohtani, maybe the biggest sports celebrity on the continent. It would have suffocated him.
In L.A., he’s just another impossibly perfect superstar, like George Clooney. The qualities that would make him uncanny in Canada make him average in L.A. That is the land where unsettling things belong.
Guerrero is more Toronto’s speed. For all his visual pizzazz, Guerrero is a quiet, even reserved player. He doesn’t have big reactions to most things, nor do others to him. He never promised to win anything when he was re-signed. He only promised to try. Very Toronto.
For all its love of the hot ticket, Toronto prefers a low-key type. Guerrero is a man the city can get old with.
Baseball gets what it wanted. It pictured Ohtani in a big, American market, and he went there. He was amazing. He won a World Series right away.
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But Ohtani needs an antagonist. Juan Soto blew his chance this year. Aaron Judge doesn’t seem to want the job. So how about Guerrero? In many parts of America, Canada has become something between the suspected outsider and the enemy within. That can be leveraged.
Plus, how’s this for a World Series tagline – the best player in the world vs. the hottest player in baseball. It’s not an obvious ratings bonanza, but if the unbeatable Dodgers seem in danger of being beaten by Canada-based baseball insurgents, there’s hope.
Even Ohtani gets what he wanted out of this match-up. I doubt he feels an iota of guilt about stiffing Toronto, but if so, he doesn’t have to any more.
It’s wishful to say these two players were bound to meet for the big prize. Six months ago, you’d have said there was close to zero chance it would happen. But now that the title bout’s on tap, you can see how this was being lined up for two years.
A franchise looking for a star. A star looking to take advantage of that. And the guy who was there all along, ready to help a wounded city rediscover love.