Oh boy. We might be in the final stages of the Shohei Ohtani free agency sweepstakes.
Jon Morosi reports the slugger/pitcher’s “decision is imminent,” with the call coming potentially on Friday. He also named the Toronto Blue Jays as “one finalist.”
About that: Just like we’ve seen with college coaches and with Taylor Swift, fans out there are tracking possible flights that could indicate where Ohtani is going.
And there’s one plane people on Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) that has everyone thinking Ohtani could be on his way to … the Blue Jays.
It’s a flight from Santa Ana to Toronto that every baseball fan is watching on FlightAware (hat tip to Reddit’s r/baseball page):
Private plane from John Wayne to yyz leaving tomorrow morning popped up a couple of hours ago. https://t.co/pkFNxIiJ4P. Probably not related but…
— G Zipman (@Gzipman) December 8, 2023
There’s some debate over it:
Love that @glenjaminc has the flight log.
Keep in mind that yes is says private owner, but look at the all of the different destinations. This is a plane that is chartered on the reg!
I can't find anywhere that Ohtani OWNS a private jet so he would likely be chartering a pj pic.twitter.com/5oG5kHUfmB— Jim Riley | BALLCAP Sports YT (@JimRileyLive) December 8, 2023
Yesterday a private plane left Santa Ana and flew to Chicago. Clearly Ohtani is signing with the Cubs.
— Joshua (@JoshuaHowsam) December 8, 2023
But then …
A private flight from Anaheim airport to Toronto has popped up on flight trackers departing at 9am PST.
I don’t want to go full Kawaii here but it isn’t common to see such a flight between those two airports. #Ohtani #BlueJays pic.twitter.com/Tc9VwtD54X
— JB | Polisci (@cdnpoli101) December 8, 2023
An eagled-eyed fan noted tonight a charter flight for an 8-seat Bombardier Global 5000 leaving L.A. tomorrow, Toronto bound.
Make of it as you will, but that plane is apparently the preferred model of a Japanese baseball pitcher named Shohei Ohtani.🤔 https://t.co/G2MtlhnfGN
— ✊🇺🇦 AJ Bassett 🇺🇦✊ (@oldarenaghost) December 8, 2023
We’ll see I guess!