Shortly after Thursday’s historic and jam-packed press conference at Dodger Stadium to formally announce the Dodgers signing of future Hall of Fame two-way player Shohei Ohtani, it was being widely reported on social media that Angels of Anaheim owner Arte Moreno did not even attempt to match the Dodgers’ record-breaking 10-year/$700 million offer to retain the single greatest player in MLB history.

According to LA Times Dodgers beat writer Jack Harris, the 29-year-old superstar’s agent, Nez Balelo of CAA Sports, approached Moreno (whose team has won exactly one World Series title in the franchise’s 62-year history) near the end of the free-agency process, giving his client’s former team every opportunity to convince him to stay in Anaheim, but the Angels’ owner never even attempted to match the Dodgers (and Toronto Blue Jays) 10-year/$700 million offers.

“(Ohtani) made sure that I kept in touch with them (throughout the process),” Balelo told reporters on Thursday. “We felt that they earned the right to at least have a discussion at the end,” he added.

There was no discussion.

“I would like to thank the Los Angeles Angels organization. It was great, it was a fun ride, great ride for the last six years,” a very humble and very respectful Ohtani told the large gathering through Dodgers Japanese interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. “I’d like to thank everybody in that organization and I will never forget all the memories I have.”

Ohtani said one of the reasons he chose to sign with the Dodgers was because they told him that, despite making the playoffs the last 10 years, they considered that a failure because they did not win the World Series.

“When I heard that, I knew they were all about winning,” Ohtani said through Mizuhara.

There really isn’t much more to say except…

Play Ball!

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