NASHVILLE, Tenn. — On a day when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confirmed his club’s meeting with Shohei Ohtani, who might earn the richest contract in MLB history, Alex Anthopoulos was asked about the Braves’ potential interest in the two-way Japanese superstar.
The Braves’ president of baseball operations didn’t directly shoot it down, but made it sound like the Braves won’t be signing Ohtani.
“I guess I’d say this: I can’t talk, obviously, about any free agents at all,” Anthopoulos said. “What I can tell you is we are very happy with our position player group. We had a very good offense last year. We’ve only pursued one position player this offseason – that was Jarred Kelenic, that we were able to get a deal done. And we have not explored any other position players in any capacity – at any time.”
Ohtani recently underwent right elbow surgery and won’t pitch in 2024. He’ll solely be a designated hitter.
The fun in all this comes with this: Ohtani’s free agency has been secretive. There haven’t been any leaks, which reportedly is how Ohtani wants it. (ESPN reported that Ohtani might even go as far to punish teams if details of their pursuits of him were leaked.)
Roberts went public. His general manager, Brandon Gomes, didn’t follow suit and even said he was surprised by the manager confirming the meeting with Ohtani.
One rumor connected the Braves to Ohtani. But it always has seemed unlikely the Braves would sign him. They explore every avenue to improve their club, but Ohtani – namely, the contract he’d command – wouldn’t appear to make much sense for the Braves.
There have been lots of rumors this offseason. Anthopoulos is aware of it.
On Sunday, he commented on the accuracy – or lack thereof – of many of these rumors.
On Tuesday, he did it again. He said the Braves targeted Aaron Bummer and Jarred Kelenic. They’ve also worked on adding starting pitching.
“Anyone speculating anything beyond that, someone decided to make stuff up,” Anthopoulos said. “But that’s it. We worked on Bummer specifically, we worked on Kelenic specifically, and then we worked on a variety of starters, both trade and free agency.”
