Are we really doing this?
(Note the double meaning)
⚾ Welcome to the Batflip, a free, independent, reader-supported site providing coverage of Toronto Blue Jays baseball. If you enjoy what you see, be sure to subscribe and have every post emailed to you as soon as it goes up.
Please also consider upgrading to paid. Not only does a paid subscription unlock access to post comments and submit questions when I do a mail bag, it allows me to avoid using a paywall and keeps all my work free for everybody else. ⚾
Look, I don’t want to spend a lot of time on gossip from a British rag written by a couple of people nobody has ever heard of. You can make a headline as splashy as you want, and you can craft a bold banner shouting “EXCLUSIVE” as loudly as possible, but it isn’t going to change the timing of Shohei Ohtani’s decision, and certainly shouldn’t change anybody’s belief about which way it’s going to go. You’re only asking for heartbreak if you start thinking that signing the best player on the planet is anything more than a long shot for the Blue Jays, even at this point.
That’s especially true when the Daily Mail is involved. I’ve followed soccer transfer sagas for long enough to know that UK papers are no better at getting rumours right than the Transaction Men we have over here.
And yet the Daily Mail is involved. With a splashy headline on a supposedly exclusive story telling us that the “Toronto Blue Jays are the shock front-runners to sign Shohei Ohtani this winter.”
And the thing is, as reticent as I may be to get into all this, we are in the middle of a global story here…
…and it’s not every day that Jays-related whispers are titillating enough to capture the world’s attention. So, I say, why not indulge ourselves while we have the chance?
I’m sure that, if the excitement of it all ultimately blows up in our faces, one day we’ll be able to look back on these last few days and laugh. It may just take… *checks how long it’s been since Yu Darvish*… almost twelve years.
Plus, it doesn’t exactly hurt that, in their piece, Daily Mail writers Russ Weakland and Jake Fenner are telling Jays fans literally exactly what we want to hear. ARE WE MADE OF STONE?
So… what the hell, let’s needlessly raise some hopes.
Once dark horses, the Toronto Blue Jays are now apparently favourites to land baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani, according to the piece in question.
The intensely private Ohtani, sources tell the authors, finds the prospect of playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers daunting, because he knows that “there will be a lot of baggage that comes from being on that team and always having to be the star off the field while he is making his star continue to rise on the field.”
“Ohtani is hoping to make his decision before Christmas time and sources reiterate 'it is really looking like Toronto will be the pick. It is going to take a tremendous offer and situation from another team for him not to choose Toronto.'”
The two-time AL MVP “needs a little more convincing” to become a Dodger, in other words.
And… that’s really it.
There are more sentences in the piece, but they seem to only exist to pad out what is otherwise an fairly basic story that anyone who followed the Winter Meetings at all could have told you. Frankly, I think the fact that Ohtani may not choose the Dodgers is fairly apparent from the length of time he’s taking to make his decision, and the fact that he bothered to fly all the way to Dunedin this week. I’m not sure we needed the sudden materialization of Russ Weakland and Jake Fenner’s sources from oddly deep within baseball’s most impenetrable fortress to tell us that.
And who, exactly, are these reporters anyway?
An interesting question! And one that a local Redditor claims to have an answer to.
On Tuesday evening, user Julians_World wrote:
Unique in sight for what it’s worth on Jake Fenner’s Daily Mail article about his sources telling him the Jays and Ohtani, and expecting him to sign with Toronto :
Hi guys, I’m from Toronto originally I worked for MLSE, Rogers Sportsnet, and a lifetime ago I was on Sportsnet’s Gillette Drafted. I currently live in Manchester, I moved here over 3 years ago to be the social media guy for Manchester United, and I currently work for BBC sport’s social media. I’m providing context because what I’m about to say needs context first, because I hate “fans with sources” just as much as the next guy. I’ve asked around at work today about Jake Fenner/Daily Mail and people a lot higher up and smarter than me said Jake Fenner and the Daily Mail have the highest standing credibility when it comes to reporting on soccer transfer market signings and just sports in general, and him/Daily Mail wouldn’t ruin their credibility over Baseball. in North American terms: Jake Fenner of the daily mail is the UK equivalent of Woj and ESPN reporting something. I think it’s okay to allow ourselves as a collective fans to get excited about an article saying his sources feel confident the jays are going to sign Ohtani. Take that for what you will.
It’s been suggested to me, by people who would know, that this really is someone formerly of the Toronto media world, but… uh… I think his bosses in England might be fucking with him.
For one thing, soccer’s version of Woj is Fabrizio Romano. For another, the Woj of soccer would probably have more than 700-odd followers on Twitter. Which isn’t to say that Jake can’t be correct about this, it’s to say that the Redditor is clueless.
But the story doesn’t quite end there.
Another thing the Redditor seems unfamiliar with is how to read a byline—pretty funny considering the apparent media background. The Daily Mail didn’t just publish the authors’ names in the order they did at random. Nor did they place them in alphabetical order. Russ Weakland is the lead writer here. And that’s actually somewhat interesting.
This is from the “About” section of Weakland’s LinkedIn profile:
Russ Weakland has recently worked with Variety, A360, and The Blast and is very proud of his current work for the Daily Mail. He is always found covering major Hollywood and celebrity-filled events like the Super Bowl, Oscars, American Idol, and Dancing with the Stars to name a few, and will always be on the red carpet for the biggest movie and TV premieres of the moment. Throughout his career, he has also helped break some of the biggest stories in Hollywood, including the explosive Chris Brown and Rihanna domestic violence incident in 2009 while at TMZ. Russ worked nearly 4 years at the aforementioned TMZ along with stints at Radar Online.
The profile also tells us that he was once the personal assistant to Everybody Loves Raymond star Doris Roberts. SO WHO ELSE ARE YOU GONNA TRUST FOR YOUR BASEBALL NEWS?
Jokes aside though, this guy is L.A.-based. He doesn’t have a ton of Twitter followers either, but TMZ is extremely real in the world of gossip. Radar Online, too.
And let’s not forget that Creative Artists Agency, which represents Ohtani, has a massive presence Hollywood—their primary business. Founded in 1975, CAA didn’t get into sports until 2006.
A guy with Weakland’s CV, in that town, getting info on a CAA-represented athlete?
I’m surprised to have arrived here, but that’s not exactly implausible.
That doesn’t mean what’s being said—little of substance as there was—is true. Maybe someone wants to nudge the Dodgers to make an over-the-top offer and is leaking things to make them sweat. Seems like agent behaviour to me! Or maybe…
I don’t know!
I mean, I’m not about to start believing the Daily effing Mail, or allowing myself to think that the Jays are actually going to come out on top in this one. But… I don’t know… I don’t know…
⚾ Want to support without going through Substack? You could always send cash to stoeten@gmail.com on Paypal or via Interac e-Transfer. I assure you I won’t say no. ⚾
I'm glad. I was getting worried about you. Happy New Year!
This offseason is turning out just like last season. Frustrating. Waiting for something big to happen....and not much is happening. Like the regular season, I just want it to end.