TORONTO (AP) \u2014 While most of baseball is saying hats off to Shohei Ohtani, Toronto manager John Schneider wants a cap back from the two-way star.<\/p>\n
Before signing a $700 million, 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a>, the two-way star met with Blue Jays officials on Dec. 4, 2023, at the team’s spring training complex in Dunedin, Florida.<\/p>\n Ohtani will be the opening batter of the World Series, hitting leadoff for the defending champion Dodgers against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Friday night after his unprecedented performance at the plate and on the mound in the NL Championship Series.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope he brought his hat, the Blue Jay that that he took from us in our meeting. I hope he brought it back, finally,\u201d Schneider said Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the jacket for Decoy,\u201d he added, a reference to Ohtani’s dog<\/a>, a Nederlanse kooikerhondje<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s like, give us our stuff back already.\u201d<\/p>\n Ohtani helped lead the Dodgers to last year’s title, hitting .310 with 54 homers, 130 RBIs and 59 stolen bases.<\/p>\n Back to pitching in a limited role this season as he returned from elbow surgery, he batted .282 with 55 homers, 102 RBIs and 20 steals while going 1-1 with a 2.87 ERA in 14 starts, striking out 62 in 47 innings.<\/p>\n Last Friday, he homered three times while pitching six shutout innings and striking 10 against Milwaukee as the Dodgers completed a four-game sweep of the NL Championship Series.<\/p>\n