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NASHVILLE, Tenn — Blue Jays manager John Schneider is part of the crowd in genuine awe of the power and skill of Shohei Ohtani and willing to articulate those thoughts.
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As to his team’s supposedly private but becoming much more public pursuit of the Japanese superstar, that’s where the discussion ends.
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“What he does is obviously unique to the sport,” Schneider said during his meeting with the media here on Tuesday at baseball’s Winter Meetings. “Pitching. Hitting. He can run. Dangerous in the box, obviously.
“A talent the game hasn’t seen in quite some time, if ever. I think his entire game is driving all the attention around him right now.”
With that assessment out of the way, it was Schneider’s turn to take the silly season stage. Four separate times he was asked whether he met with Ohtani in Dunedin on Monday — as has been reported — and for each he stuck to the company line.
The manager was even complimented on his tan, the inference being that it surely meant he was in Florida courting the potential future greatness of Ohtani. Schneider had a chuckle over that one, given he lives in the Tampa area in the off-season and has never had a pale complexion in his life.
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“Who we meet with and where we meet them we keep to ourselves,” said Schneider, who did acknowledge that he arrived in Nashville on Monday night. “I’ll keep that between me and the organization.”
Schneider did acknowledge that being in the centre of the Ohtani storm has added an element of excitement to an off-season where the team is committed to improving after abject failure in each of the previous two off-seasons.
“Obviously, you see and hear the buzz around you,” Schneider said. “I think that’s cool to go with an already strong team that’s already really talented and ready to take that next step. I think it’s nice for everyone to hear some possibilities.”
As sublime as that buzz around Ohtani has been, the Jays involvement has become a big story in its own right. From general manager Ross Atkins’ mysterious Zoom news conference from parts unknown the previous day, to a clear evasiveness of any details regarding their role in the Ohtani chase, it has led to wild speculation.
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The Toronto tact was certainly in sharp contract to Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who followed Schneider to the podium on Tuesday at the Opryland Resort here. Perhaps it’s because he knows his team is the favourite to land Ohtani. Roberts was fine to acknowledge his team’s quest and even offer details.
Yes, the Dodgers met with the man they are recruiting “a couple of days ago” at Dodger Stadium and Roberts was more than willing to be forthright and transparent about what went down. Imagine that!
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“I don’t feel like lying is something I do,” Roberts said when he went the opposite direction of the Jays’ pointedly evasive approach bordering on paranoia. “I was asked a question. I think to be forthright in this situation, we kept it quiet. I think that it’s going to come out at some point that we met and it obviously already has. So I don’t think myself or anyone in our organization would want to lie about it.
“I would like to be honest and so we met with Shohei and we talked and I think it went well,” Roberts continued. “But at the end of the day, he’s his own man and he’s going to do what’s best for himself, where he feels most comfortable.”
Unlike the Jays, Roberts offered a window into what Ohtani was looking for on his fact-finding mission. And to that end, it’s clear that before the Japanese phenom signs what will be the richest contract in the history of the sport, he is doing his research.
“I don’t know if it was a pitch,” Roberts said when asked to describe the visit. “It was more of getting more familiar with him. He had questions for us, just trying to get more of the landscape. But being in this league for six years, he’s got a pretty good idea of the Dodgers, what we’re about, the city itself. For me, it was just a pleasure to get to spend some time with him.”
The Jays did much of the same, likely including a stop in Dunedin this week and possibly in Los Angeles and Toronto for that matter. They just have no interest in talking about it.
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