Shohei Ohtani rumors: Sweepstakes could be down to two teams

Every Los Angeles Angels fan and just baseball fan in general wants to see where Shohei Ohtani ends up. It's pretty rare that the best player in any given sport is up for grabs like this, so watching the Ohtani market develop has been fascinating.

As much as the Angels would like to bring Ohtani back, chances are he's going to leave as the team has failed miserably to put anything resembling a winning ball club. With Ohtani likely leaving Anaheim, the Dodgers have been the presumptive favorites to land Shohei. According to Bruce Levine 670 The Score in Chicago, the Dodgers are one of two possible finalists for Ohtani's services.

Could the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes already be down to two?

It's all Dodgers and Cubs in on Ohtani as of now. The Dodgers have always been very in on Shohei but the Cubs being listed as a favorite has been a new theme come this offseason.

Chicago missed the playoffs but still finished over .500 and has a nice roster for Ohtani to join. They have a boatload of money to spend, a fanbase hungry to win, and have the advantage of being the only non-west Division team that was considered a finalist for Ohtani last time around. Shohei is clearly somewhat enamored by the idea of playing in the Windy City.

Whether the Cubs actually land Ohtani remains to be seen, but this isn't the first rumor that links the two parties together. Chicago just went all out to give Craig Counsell the largest contract in MLB history for a manager, could they do the same to land Ohtani? Certainly possible.

What's important here is that the Angels are not mentioned at all as a contender for Shohei. It's not surprising, but does say something about their chances. Ohtani and his camp have been extremely tight-lipped about this whole situation so it's possible that the Angels or any other team out there has a better shot than some might realize, but for now, we can only go by what we see.

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