Whichever team Shohei Ohtani chooses will reportedly be investigated by the league

While everybody focuses on where Shohei Ohtani will end up over the next days and weeks, the league is focused on how the team he chooses actually convinced him to come to its city.

Yes, there have been questionnaires and meetings and unknown priorities to assess on Ohtani’s side of things, but those decision-making factors are above board. According to reports from ESPN, and some common sense, MLB will put whichever team gets Ohtani under immediate scrutiny to make sure everything’s by the book.

This is one of the most high-profile international signings in years and has more ink devoted to it than any other story in the baseball offseason, so it’s not as if people already aren’t paying close attention to how the final seven teams are courting him. It’s a big deal, and it’s not as if it would be easy to offer any under-the-table benefits or shady extra promises without someone noticing on a stage such as this.

However, MLB is set to make sure that nothing of the sort is happening and that not even one hair is out of place when Ohtani finally signs a contract with a team. With the recent brouhaha around the Braves and their rulebreaking, this should come as no surprise since the league can’t have another team skirting the strict international signing rules once again (on top of the Red Sox also being punished for it in 2016).

One team executive reportedly told ESPN:

“The commissioner’s attention on this has been unprecedented. There’s a lot of avenues for cheating, and I think [MLB is] well-aware of that.”

The avenues alluded to here include promising endorsements, future contract guarantees, bribes to Ohtani’s team, attempting to skirt league rules to offer him more money than international signing rules allow, or any other way that teams might try to convince him to sign that isn’t on the up-and-up.

Another source told ESPN:

“I think the perspective of the commissioner’s office has been, ‘Hey, we set up this system to limit your [financial] exposure, so you need to play by the rules.’”

Whether you agree with the “this is for your own good” reasoning for these restrictions, the restrictions are indeed there and a major emphasis for the league. Rob Manfred doesn’t want it to look like he can’t keep teams in line, especially after he brought the hammer down so thoroughly on the Braves.

So whichever team is lucky enough to add Ohtani to its roster, its initial excitement may be short-lived. The team can expect to have to acquiesce to the league’s prodding and investigating once it seals the deal and passes the tests the commissioner’s office puts forth in regard to how it was able to actually accomplish what every team in the league was hoping to do.