It's already December, and the race to get Shohei Ohtani's signature in free agency is only going to heat up from here for the Japanese international's biggest suitors. At this point, there are no clear-cut indicators for which team is ahead in their pursuit or which team has seen their chances of signing Ohtani dwindle by the second, but there are signs that there remain a few teams in the mix to secure the 29-year old superstar dual threat's services, which won't be coming cheap.

According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, four teams remain squarely in the mix for Ohtani, and those teams are the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Toronto Blue Jays, and Los Angeles Angels, although Passan contended that “it would be foolish to count out any high revenue team” even though the likes of the reigning World Series champion Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, and New York Mets have already “turned their attention to other players”.

One of the swing variables in the Shohei Ohtani free agency equation may be what the San Francisco Giants decide to do. Passan noted that where the Giants stand in the Ohtani sweepstakes remains “unknown”, although just like last year when the Giants nearly signed Carlos Correa to a huge deal, they stand to be major players in free agency during this Hot Stove season.

Whatever the case may be, expect the talks between Ohtani and the teams interested in him to remain quiet, especially when the Japanese international and his camp have already said in the past that they won't be tolerating any leaks.

Shohei Ohtani's main selling point as a player remains his elite production on both the pitching and hitting side of the baseball equation, although for the 2024 season, it doesn't look likely that Ohtani suits up on the mound at all for the team that signs him due to injury. Nevertheless, as Jeff Passan wrote, the signing of Ohtani is “expected to jump-start” the position player market.

In 599 plate appearances last season, the 2023 AL MVP tallied 44 home runs and 95 runs batted in on an elite slash line of .304/.412/.654 for an Angels team that missed the playoffs altogether.