Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the team met with top free agent Shohei Ohtani at Dodger Stadium in the last few days but team executives later said they were "surprised" by his comments.
Roberts confirmed the meeting in a chat with reporters at the Winter Meetings in Nasvhille, Tenn. on Tuesday.
The Dodgers are the first team to confirm they have met with Ohtani.
Roberts said the meeting lasted two to three hours.
"He has a very good poker face," Roberts said.
Despite Roberts' public comments, Dodgers executives Brandon Gomes and Andrew Friedman refused to comment on Ohtani specifically, saying they "can't comment on free agents."
Gomes, Los Angeles' general manager, said that he was surprised when he saw what Roberts said.
When asked if the comments hurt their pursuit of Ohtani due to the 29-year-old's reported interest in having negotiations kept private, Gomes said: "I have no idea."
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported late Monday that the Toronto Blue Jays are believed to have met with Ohtani at their complex in Dunedin, Fla.
Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins has not confirmed this meeting during media interviews.
“Some meetings that occur, that don’t occur, I’m not going to get into the specifics of,” Atkins said Tuesday. “Just as I was speaking earlier about the stakeholders (and not commenting), with free agents, they’ve earned that right and we want to be very respectful of that.”
There have also been reports Ohtani was in San Francisco to meet the Giants.
The Los Angeles Angels, the lone MLB team Ohtani has played for, also are believed to be in the running.
"We want to respect Shohei's wishes as far as being private," Roberts said, "but obviously people talk. I don't think I need to share what we talked about."
Roberts at first hesitated before giving a few details.
"It's a good possibility," he said. "Yeah, we met with him. I like to be honest and so we met with Shohei and we talked and I think it went well. I think it went well, but at the end of the day, he's going to do what's best for himself, where he feels most comfortable."
Ohtani led the AL with 44 homers and hit .304 with 96 RBIs, eight triples and 20 stolen bases for the Los Angeles Angels at the plate in a season that ended Sept. 3 because of an oblique injury.
He was 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA in 23 starts on the mound, striking out 167 and walking 55 in 132 innings before tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow on Aug. 23. He had surgery on Sept. 19 that will keep him off the mound until 2025.
Ohtani has not spoken with reporters since Aug. 9, failing to get on a conference call after his MVP award.
“I don't know if it was more of a pitch,” Roberts said. “I think it was more of just sort of getting familiar, more familiar with him. I think that 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. And so for me, and speaking for our guys, it was just a pleasure to get to spend some time with him.”
Ohtani met with the Dodgers before signing with the Angels in December 2017 for a $2,315,000 bonus — because of his age, he was restricted by the amount of teams' international signing bonus pools.
“I think in ‘17, I think it was more — of more of an overview, and you’re selling — more of a sell on things that he didn't really know about: the country, the city, the organization, potential role," Roberts said. "And I think that in this situation — not trying to speak for him — but it's a little bit more narrow 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 feeling, trying to feel what everyday life would look like.”
Ohtani earned $3 million, $5.5 million and $30 million in his three seasons of arbitration eligibility. His contract is expected to top the $426.5 million, 12-year contract of Angels outfielder Mike Trout that began in 2019.
-- With files from AP.
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