Ohtani has requested radio silence and it's been hilariously frustrating
Shohei Ohtani made it clear that he didn't want any leaks or reports to come out on his dealings with big-league clubs. He even indicated that he would hold it against them. It's caused a lot of frustration from reporters. These guys traveled to Nashville to cover the winter meetings, in particular, to cover the biggest free agent signing of our lifetimes. They have a job to do. We are all clamoring for information on Ohtani and where he'll go and Ohtani doesn't want anyone to know. He's a private guy, I guess.
Braves beat reporter and music aficionado David O'Brien of the Athletic expressed his frustration via Twitter. We may not have good reporting on Ohtani, but we do have Twitter threads like this one. Make sure you give it a read. Baseball always finds a way to give back.
Ohtani and his agent don't want news leaked of meetings with teams, say such leaks will be held against that team. And so many folks normalizing this instead of calling it out for what it is, pretentious BS. We all know he's an incredible player. Just negotiate and pick a team.
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) December 5, 2023
The lack of real information has caused reports and speculation like this:
Ohtani did tell some folks he knows before his probable Jays Florida visit he has a positive feeling about Toronto (and a few other cities/clubs, including the Dodgers). Don’t discount the Jays.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 5, 2023
It wouldn't make a ton of sense to travel across the country to meet with a potential employer if you had a very negative feeling about them.