Shohei Ohtani Contract Negotiations Enter ‘Final Phase’ – NBC Sports Bay Area and California

Baseball fans around the world may soon know which team Shohei Ohtani will be playing for next season – and Giants fans are certainly waiting with bated breath.

Contract negotiations with Japanese two-way star They enter their final stopwith a small group of MLB teams expected to meet with Ohtani and his representatives this weekend in Los Angeles, Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson Smith reported Friday, citing industry sources familiar with the process.

While San Francisco is supposed to be one of the teams to make a free agent offer, their current status in Ohtani’s free agency sweepstakes is unclear.

Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox and New York Mets Everyone has turned their attention to other players in the market, while the Los Angeles Angels (with whom… Ohtani spent the past six seasonsThe Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and Toronto Blue Jays remain in the bidding as of Friday, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported, citing sources.

“The San Francisco Giants have long been fond of Ohtani, although their position in this lottery is unknown,” Passan wrote.

This may not be a bad thing as negotiations come to a close. The Giants could be on the down low to respect Ohtani’s desire for privacy after Passan reported last month that if any meetings with teams were leaked, the star would hold them against that organization.

However, San Francisco’s desire to sign Ohtani was not special, as MLB Network’s Jon Morosi explained during an appearance on “Hot Stove” earlier this week.

“Sources tell me that the Giants are ready, and that they are devoting all their heart and money to landing one of Shohei Ohtani or Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the coming weeks,” Morosi said.

It remains to be seen whether Ohtani or Yamamoto, a Japanese target for the Giants, will end up in San Francisco. But Giants fans could get their answer in the coming days.

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