Shohei Ohtani left Blue Jays complex wearing Toronto gear after secret meeting in 2023
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The secretive meeting between Ohtani and the Jays down in Dunedin has been detailed in the coming book The Franchise: Toronto Blue Jays: A Curated History of the Jays, by mlb.com beat reporter Keegan Matheson.
According to the book and reported by the Star, Ohtani, his agent, Nez Balelo, and interpreter Ippei Mizuhara flew to Florida to visit the team's state-of-the-art training complex and meet with Jays manager John Schneider, GM Ross Atkins, president Mark Shapiro and owner Edward Rogers.
Due to Ohtani's request to keep his free-agency meetings a secret, the entire 65-acre complex was completely closed to players and personnel that day.
According to Matheson, the Blue Jays told players and staff that there was a 'Rogers ownership meeting' taking place and that they needed to stay away for the day.
'We're standing upstairs in the suite and (Jays senior manager of security Jason Weaving) is texting us updates. We watched him get out of the car. I'm wearing a sport coat and we're all done up. It was like royalty was coming,' Schneider told Matheson. 'There was no one in the complex. It was bare.
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Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The following are three takeaways on a night the Phillies blew the game open by scoring seven runs, including six in their first at-bats, through the opening two innings, a night when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. extended his MLB-best on-base streak to 33 games following a walk in the third inning. Bruised and broken Bowden It's back to the drawing board for Bowden Francis, who hasn't picked up a win since his first start of the season way back on March 31 when he faced Washington Nationals. In his intervening starts, too many home runs have been yielded, few nights when he's pitched deep into games and an overall question when it concerns Francis' exact role and whether he should be in the major leagues at this moment. 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