Blue Jays fans might blame Drake for Ohtani signing with the Dodgers
With rumors swirling Friday, all signs pointed to Shohei Ohtani ending his free agency and signing with the Toronto Blue Jays.
But there was one sign pointing in the opposite direction, and it came courtesy of Drake.
The Grammy award-winning rapper is known to be bad luck in the sports world, and he certainly didn’t do himself and his fellow Toronto natives any favors by donning an Ohtani jersey from this year’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game and posting a picture of him wearing it on his Instagram story.
Less than 24 hours later, Ohtani made his decision known that he was staying in California as he joined the Los Angeles Dodgers by inking a reported 10-year, $700 million contract, which stunned professional athletes across all sports.
Blue Jays fans might point their fingers at Drake for how the Ohtani sweepstakes played out given his history of cursing sports teams from the historic 2016 Golden State Warriors to the 2019 Alabama football team, but he can’t be the only reason why Toronto fell short in their pursuit of the two-way phenom.
The New York Post’s Jon Heyman did list the Blue Jays as a finalist for Ohtani among a few other teams, but Heyman said geography and a winning culture were the two biggest factors in Ohtani’s decision.
So, instead of seeing their odds of winning the World Series dramatically improve, the Blue Jays are now relying on the same core that has continuously underachieved the past few seasons unless they try to make another big move in free agency.
And if the Blue Jays try to take another swing at a big-time free agent, they just might want to keep the news of that move under wraps so Drake can’t catch any wind of it.