Shohei Ohtani’s free agency decision could hang on a ‘no leaking’ clause

Teams interested in signing Shohei Ohtani are being given a very clear warning: Leak info at your own peril.

With mystery swirling around which team will manage to land the superstar in free agency there’s a clear desire from the Ohtani camp to keep everything under wraps until they’ve made a final decision. Ken Rosenthal wrote about the latest details in the race for Ohtani in The Athletic, and it contained this detail about the no-blabbing clause.

“It is not known whether Ohtani is close to a deal with any team. His free agency remains shrouded in secrecy, and officials with interested teams say his agent, Nez Balelo, has warned them that leaking any details of the process would be held against them.”

Ohtani is believed to be taking a very slow, methodical, and meticulous approach to free agency — and wants the decision to be his own without the pressure that comes with news leaking. It adds an extra layer of complexity to this process, and something to pay attention to, especially as a decision is expected within the week.

The nature of the “no talking” demand means that if you’re a fan of a team in the running for Ohtani you don’t want to hear anything about it until pen is on paper. Typically we hear murmurs of where someone will sign prior to a deal being done, but this could very easily become an 11th hour poison pill that could lead to Ohtani changing his mind.

As a result is also mean that hearing nothing about a team could actually be a very good thing.

While this might be frustrating for those who just want to know at this point, I get where Ohtani’s camp is coming from. He’s about to ink a massive contract that will saddle himself to an organization for the next 7-10 years, so he wants to ensure whatever measures are in place to protect him.

Now we all continue to play the waiting game.