TORONTO – Toronto Blue Jays brass used all of the bells and whistles after they tried to land two-way celebrity Shohei Ohtani within the fall of 2023.
The once-in-a-lifetime pursuit of the Japanese free agent, as creator Keegan Matheson writes in his new ebook, “The Franchise: Toronto Blue Jays,” included taking Ohtani, his agent and interpreter on the time on a tour of the staff’s renovated participant growth complicated, full with just a few particular touches.
Three lockers within the clubhouse have been put aside for Ohtani, together with jerseys, gear, hats, baggage and equipment. It was all a part of an elaborate effort to promote him on the staff.
An impressed Ohtani — whose camp needed whole secrecy all through the method — walked out of the Dunedin, Fla., facility with baggage of staff gear and a Blue Jays hat on his head, Matheson writes.
Ohtani stopped to take footage together with his interpreter, who was additionally sporting some Toronto package. The celebrity’s canine, “Decoy,” got here working out to hitch them in a Canadian canine jacket the Blue Jays had purchased for him.
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“I believe that the presentation they gave Ohtani was extremely spectacular and so they weren’t the No. 2 staff simply to be strung alongside and used as the opposite particular person on the bargaining desk,” stated Matheson. “They have been No. 2 as a result of they virtually signed him.”
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The behind-the-scenes color and particulars from Matheson’s interviews and descriptions deliver an intriguing, memorable and downright surreal chapter within the staff’s close to half-century historical past to life.
Ohtani would ultimately signal a 10-year, US$700-million cope with the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was an enormous blow for Canada’s lone big-league staff and its countrywide contingent of supporters.
The Blue Jays would ultimately signal an enormous fish of their very own, locking up star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a 14-year extension final April price a staff report $500 million. The megadeal helped soothe any lingering ache from the Ohtani scenario and likewise confirmed the franchise was keen to spend huge in an effort to be a constant contender.
However that Ohtani low season — from a weird Zoom name with common supervisor Ross Atkins to the faulty report that Ohtani had chosen the Blue Jays and was on a airplane to Toronto — was the “strangest expertise” Matheson expects to have as a reporter.
“The sport that went into it was actually fascinating,” Matheson stated in a current interview. “Attempting to function in secrecy in a world the place we need to know every thing that’s occurring together with your favorite staff and together with your favorite participant.
“This was extra of a TV drama and the quantity of labor that went into protecting it secret fascinates me.”
The ebook additionally explores the staff’s early days, the playoff successes within the early Nineties, the near-misses within the earlier decade, and lots of the gamers — on and off the sphere — who made all of it occur.
The tales and anecdotes aren’t all the time the apparent ones.
From gamers sipping rooster noodle soup at a frigid Exhibition Stadium, to amusing tales of manager-athlete dynamics, to the homecoming after a 670-day break between house video games resulting from COVID-19, Matheson touches all of the bases.
“As a substitute of asking a pitcher why he misplaced or asking somebody why they struck out thrice, this was a possibility to ask somebody, ‘Hey, inform me about the most effective days of your life,’” stated Matheson, who covers the staff for MLB.com.
“Inform me about that reminiscence that everybody all the time asks you about on the bar, at golf tournaments and low outlets.”
“The Franchise: Toronto Blue Jays,” a 302-page ebook printed by Triumph Books, is obtainable now at a retail value of $38.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed June 11, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
