In the early hunt for what is shaping up as the biggest sweepstakes of the winter, the New York Mets will no longer be considered by Shohei Otani as a potential landing spot.
It was always going to be a Hail Mary, but for a few days, the New York Mets were a part of the Otani sweepstakes. And why wouldn’t they be, a player of his caliber peaked legitimate interest from almost all 30 teams in MLB.
Sandy Alderson was even publicly quoted as being “intrigued” by the young player and his rare skill set.
Sandy Alderson is intrigued by Shohei Otani. The Mets see themselves as longshots for his services. But they’ve already done some legwork and they’ll soon be discussing a sales pitch: https://t.co/rAONHUF15m
— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) November 15, 2017
Then it surfaced that Otani wanted every potential suitor to write out a letter in both English and Japanese with their respective sales pitch. The Mets did their due diligence by sending in their pitch with the hope of being a serious candidate for his services.
We will never know what Sandy Alderson and the Mets front office decided to use as their main selling points in the letter to Otani. Maybe they used some of the points outlined here or maybe they had other ideas in mind.
The final result is a reportedly failed attempt at the 23-year-old.
The Mets are no longer in the running for Shohei Ohtani's services, per @Joelsherman1.
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) December 3, 2017
In the end, it might not have mattered what the Mets were trying to sell Otani because he wasn’t buying their type of stock.
Cashman said that Ohtani’s reps told him they were very impressed with team’s presentation, but no matter how good it was, the Yankees couldn’t make themselves West Coast or a smaller market.
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) December 3, 2017
It is now well documented that Otani top priorities are playing on the West Coast and in a smaller market where he can be the star of the team.
There is not much the Mets could have done to make themselves either of those things. The desire to play in a small market comes as somewhat of a surprise and has effectively narrowed the possible destinations drastically.
The one silver lining the Mets and their fans can take away from this development is that Otani will not be donning the pinstripes across town.
