Roberts says Dodgers, Ohtani met for 2-3 hours
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledged Tuesday that his team met with two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani at Dodger Stadium “a couple days ago,” becoming the first person to divulge even the most basic information about a highly touted free agency that has played out in secrecy.
“Clearly,” Roberts said, “Shohei’s our top priority.”
The Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants and Toronto Blue Jays are believed to be the finalists for Ohtani, who could choose his destination within the week.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider, speaking in the wake of reports that his team met with Ohtani at its spring training facility in Dunedin, Florida, on Monday, wouldn’t comment on talks with Ohtani. Cubs manager Craig Counsell said he personally has not met with Ohtani but dismissed any connection to the team’s overall interest in him.
“I like to be honest,” Roberts said during his media session from the site of the winter meetings. “Yeah, we met with Shohei, we talked. And I think it went well. I think it went well. 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.”
The Dodgers have long been seen as favorites for Ohtani, though the Blue Jays have emerged as a legitimate threat.
The Dodgers are juggling a pursuit of Ohtani with a desire to add two to three pitchers for their rotation, a need that has placed them among the most aggressive suitors for fellow Japanese starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Signing both is not out of the question.
Ohtani, who has suffered two torn ulnar collateral ligaments in a five-year span, underwent what was vaguely described as some hybrid version of Tommy John surgery in September and he isn’t expected to pitch again until 2025. He’ll serve merely as a designated hitter this coming season, but Roberts expressed confidence that Ohtani, 29, would bounce back from surgery to again perform as a two-way player.
The Dodgers were among the finalists for Ohtani when he first came over from Japan in 2017 but were hurt at least in part by not yet having the DH available in the National League.
“In ’17, I think it was more of an overview; more of a sell on things he didn’t really know about — the country, the city, the organization, potential role,” Roberts said. “And I think that this situation, not trying to speak for him but it’s a little bit more narrowed on what his desires are, as far as teams, and I don’t think the sell needed to be as large. I think it was more of just kind of trying to feel what everyday life would look like.”
Roberts said this year’s meeting lasted somewhere in the neighborhood of two to three hours and did not involve any Dodgers players. He said he felt “good about it” but hinted at not getting much of a sense from Ohtani himself.
“He has a very good poker face,” Roberts said. “I think he was smiling inside. But I was just happy to spend some time with him. We all were.”
The Dodgers, NL West champions 10 of the past 11 years, would satisfy Ohtani’s desire to win but also remain in Southern California. They also have the resources to maximize his abilities as a two-way player. But those familiar with Ohtani’s thinking have pointed to the comfort and familiarity of the Angels as a real draw, while others have said he has long been intrigued by Toronto. The Giants and Cubs, meanwhile, have the financial capabilities to hand out a contract that is now widely expected to exceed $500 million.
The Dodgers’ meeting with Ohtani, Roberts said, was mostly about two sides becoming more familiar with one another.
“He had questions for us, just trying to get more of the landscape,” Roberts said. “Being in this league for six years, he’s got a pretty good idea of the Dodgers, what we’re about, the city itself. And so for me and speaking for our guys, it was just a pleasure to get to spend some time with him.”
Ohtani’s free agency has been handled almost exclusively by Nez Balelo, his agent at CAA; Ippei Mizuhara, his interpreter; and Ohtani himself, with few others, if any, closely involved. Interested suitors have reportedly been told that divulging information about meetings could compromise their chances of landing Ohtani. Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes later said he was “surprised” Roberts would reveal the meeting and wouldn’t comment on questions centered on it.
“It’s just not something I’m gonna talk about right now,” Gomes said.
Gomes added that teams are not allowed to speak publicly about free agents, but a source familiar with the process said Roberts’ comments were not in violation with the Use of Media protocols laid out in the collective bargaining agreement. Teams are not allowed to disclose specifics on offers for free agents or say anything that might negatively impact a player’s market. Roberts’ comments, a source said, didn’t fall under any of those parameters.
“I don’t feel like lying is something that I do,” Roberts said when asked why he was willing to talk more openly about meeting with Ohtani. “I was asked a question, and to be forthright in the situation, we kept it quiet. But I think it’s going to come out at some point that we met. It obviously already has. I don’t think myself or anybody in our organization would like to lie about it.”
The Blue Jays were much more coy with reporters on Tuesday when asked about a report that management had met with Ohtani. Schneider declined to comment on if he was in Dunedin for a meeting with Ohtani but added that Ohtani is “a talent that the game hasn’t seen in quite some time.” Schneider was scheduled to meet with the media on Monday but it was rescheduled, leading to speculation the manager was meeting with Ohtani.
General manager Ross Atkins also revealed little, speaking broadly about having confidence in making significant additions to upgrade the team, but didn’t confirm a Dunedin meeting with Ohtani. The most detail he gave toward Ohtani being a top target of the team was when referring to “several potential opportunities, certainly one that is historic, potentially.”
The Blue Jays have the sixth-highest payroll in baseball and all projections have Ohtani’s potential price at $50-plus million per season. If a deal is reach between Ohtani and the Jays, that would push Toronto’s payroll to second in baseball behind the New York Mets.
ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel contributed to this story.
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Ryan S. Clark
Many of Mikko Rantanen’s greatest moments have come in a Colorado Avalanche sweater. It’s just that the most defining moment of his career came at their expense.
It wasn’t enough that the Dallas Stars were trailing by two goals. It was also the fact that Rantanen scored a hat trick in a string of four unanswered goals that saw his current team, the host Stars, eliminate his old team, the Avalanche, in a 4-2 win Saturday in Game 7 of the Western Conference quarterfinals at the American Airlines Center.
“Obviously, the feeling was incredible to win a series,” Rantanen said in his postgame media availability. “This series was not exactly what I expected. I expected a seven-game series, even before Game 1. The ups and downs in the series. … Belief was there with the group the whole time. Obviously, I was able to make a pay to get the first one and the crowd started to roll.”
The Stars, attempting to reach the conference finals a third straight time, will advance to the semifinal round in which they will await the winner of series featuring the St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets. That encounter will be decided Sunday in Game 7 in Winnipeg.
Soon, the Stars’ collective focus will shift to another Central Division foe. But for now? The attention before, during, and after the game, was on Rantanen.
Part of what made the Avalanche-Stars series arguably the most intriguing first-round series in either conference was the fact it placed two 100-point teams that are in championship window against each other. But, it also came with several subplots with the notable being the team that traded quite a bit to land Rantanen — with the hope he could win them a Stanley Cup now — needed him to defeat the team that he won a championship with back in 2022.
With one assist through the first four games, there was a discussion about if the Stars could manage to win with a sputtering Rantanen on top of the fact they were already without two of their best players in defenseman Miro Heiskanen and forward Jason Robertson.
Rantanen responded with a three-point performance in Game 5, and a four-point performance in Game 6 only to then have a hand in each goal on Saturday. His first goal came on the power-play with 12:12 remaining in the third period when he found enough space to fire a wrist shot that beat MacKenzie Blackwood.
Then came the game-tying goal and the significance it carried. The Stars went on the power play went Avalanche forward Jack Drury was called for holding. Drury part of the trade package the Carolina Hurricanes used to get Rantanen in late January before they would trade him to the Stars.
Drury’s penalty opened the door for Rantanen to score a game-tying goal that might be one of, if not, his signature salvo. Rantanen skated into the Avalanche zone in a 1-on-3 before he split two players before going around the net for a wrap-around goal that went off the skate of Samuel Girard with 6:14 left.
Three minutes later, the Stars received another power-play opportunity that saw Rantanen along with another former Avalanche forward in Matt Duchene work together to find Wyatt Johnston for the game-winning goal.
In the final minute, the Avalanche pulled Blackwood in the attempt to grab a late goal and force over time. Instead? Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger withstood a barrage that officially ended when Stars forward Tyler Seguin got the puck out of the zone only for Rantanen to skate in on an open net for the hat trick with three seconds left.
“I couldn’t care less who scored for them, I really couldn’t,” Avalanche captain and left winger Gabriel Landeskog said when asked about what it was like to watch Rantanen score a hat trick. “Mikko is one of my best friends and I love him, but I couldn’t care if he scored or if somebody else scored.”
For eight full seasons, Rantanen was part of a homegrown movement that saw the Avalanche go from finishing with what was then the worst record in the salary cap era back in 2016-17 to become a perennial favorite to win the Stanley Cup, which did they did in 2023, while also becoming a model for the need to build through the draft.
Building through stars such as Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Landeskog and Rantanen allowed the Avalanche to become a success. As did the moves they made to get other key figures like Valeri Nichushkin and Devon Toews.
Like all teams in a championship window, the Avs were facing the prospect of possibly making a difficult decision. They had yet to agree to a new contract with Rantanen, who was a pending unrestricted free agent. Then, came the blockbuster trade that few throughout the league saw coming.
The Avalanche traded Rantanen in a three-team trade that saw them get Martin Necas and Drury along with two draft picks. Rantanen’s time with the Carolina Hurricanes was limited to just two goals and six points in 13 games.
Despite the fact the Hurricanes are also among that cadre of championship contenders, Rantanen struggled to find cohesion in Raleigh. Rather than run the risk of watching leave for nothing in free agency, the Hurricanes put out feelers to a few teams with the Stars being one of them.
A long-time admirer of Rantanen, the Stars packaged two first-round picks, three second-round picks and former prized prospect Logan Stankoven to get Rantanen. They then signed him to an eight-year contract worth $12 million annually.
“It’s two things: It’s where our team’s at, and it’s Mikko Rantanen,” Stars general manager Jim Nill told ESPN back in March.
Rantanen finished the regular season with five goals and 18 points in 20 games prior to the showdown with his former team.
Not only did Rantanen’s hat trick condemn his former team to their second first-round exit since winning the Stanley Cup, but it continued a theme of former Avalanche eliminating their previous employers.
The Avalanche and Stars faced each other in last season’s Western Conference semifinal that saw Duchene, a former Colorado first-round pick, score the game-winning goal.
A year later, it was another former Avalanche first-round pick who delivered the devastating blow.
“It seems pretty fitting,” Johnston said about Rantanen. “Obviously, we want to win for each other and I think that goes a little extra when it’s a guy like that who is such a big part of our team and was there for a long time and everyone knows the trade that went on. It’s so awesome. We’re so happy as a group for him.”
As if Rantanen scoring a hat trick in a four-goal comeback wasn’t enough, there’s also the fact that this is now the ninth consecutive Game 7 that Stars coach Peter DeBoer has won his career.
DeBoer’s nine wins in Game 7s broke a tie with Darryl Sutter for the most in NHL history. It was also DeBoer’s third game 7 wins with the Stars.
“I felt something was going to happen,” DeBoer said. “But I could not have predicted that.”
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