It’s clear that while rivals set their sights on more realistic targets, the Jays were used and discarded by the game’s best player during what turned out to be one of the franchise’s most disappointing off-seasons in recent memory.

More than four months have passed since the bidding for Shohei Ohtani came to a close, and the notion that the top free agent in Major League Baseball history was going to sign with the Blue Jays seems even more absurd now than it did then.

Ohtani spurned the Jays’ pursuit in favour of signing a 10-year deal with the Dodgers worth $700 million (U.S.). It was the result almost everyone predicted at the start of the off-season. The game’s best player was going to the team with one of the league’s biggest budgets.

This was never a fair fight even though the Jays talked themselves into thinking otherwise. That’s the backdrop as Ohtani arrives in Toronto for the start of a three-game series on Friday night at Rogers Centre with a league-leading .358 batting average to go along with 20 extra-base hits and 16 RBIs.

The Dodgers had the preferred location. Los Angeles was a shorter flight to Japan and after spending six years playing in nearby Anaheim, Ohtani was already familiar with the city. Signing with the Jays required moving countries. Staying in L.A. didn’t even require switching homes.

An even bigger problem with the Jays’ offer would have come when Ohtani and his reps asked: “OK, if we sign, what’s next?” The free-spending Dodgers would have responded with an elaborate plan to sign Ohtani’s fellow countryman Yoshinobu Yamamoto and slugger Teoscar Hernández while trading for Tyler Glasnow.

The Jays? Well, after requiring special approval from ownership to make the offer, there wasn’t going to be much money left for anyone else. Yamamoto and Glasnow? How about Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Kevin Kiermaier? That doesn’t do it for you? How about Justin Turner or Daniel Vogelbach?

The short-term outlook favoured L.A. and the long-term one did too. The Dodgers entered this season with the eighth-best farm system per ESPN, which included five top-100 prospects. The Jays were ranked a distant 24th with only one prospect inside the top 100.

Equally concerning would have been their lack of long-term deals. Danny Jansen was eligible for free agency at the end of 2024. Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Jordan Romano were set to follow a year later. In L.A., stars Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman were signed long term. All-star catcher Will Smith soon would be too.

The Jays didn’t have much of anything working in their favour, but Ohtani’s camp needed their money to increase the bidding and convinced the organization it had a chance. Privately, in the days leading up to his signing, there was no shortage of optimism from Jays’ officials.

Toronto reporters were told Ohtani’s preference for the west coast was overblown. That he wasn’t a Hollywood guy and preferred the laid-back style of Toronto. He was excited about expanding his brand into Canada. He fell in love with the club’s new player development complex.

In other years, those selling points might have worked. If the Jays were trying to outbid Mets billionaire owner Steve Cohen like they previously did to sign George Springer it would have made for a strong case. When matched up against the Dodgers, it became a fruitless endeavour.

The benefit of hindsight isn’t even required here because the clues were there all along. The best example was Ohtani’s visit to the Jays’ spring training complex in early December. The tour itself wasn’t unusual — he made similar stops with the Dodgers and Giants — but the timing certainly was.

The notoriously private Ohtani could have made the trip whenever he wanted, but he chose the first day of MLB’s annual winter meetings. He did so knowing it would force Jays general manager Ross Atkins to skip a portion of the meetings and the required media availabilities that accompany it.

Atkins’s absence was impossible to miss and it turned the meetings into a media circus. Ohtani to the Jays became the most polarizing topic around the league as speculation began about a potential move north of the border.

So, why would a player who previously threatened any leaks would eliminate that team from consideration, pick such a high-profile date?

Leverage is the logical answer and it worked. As Ohtani’s whereabouts went public, the Dodgers began to doubt themselves and significantly increased their offer. Ohtani got the money he wanted and the Dodgers landed the generational talent. All the Jays were left with was the arrival of Robert Herjavec on a private jet.

It’s clear that while rivals set their sights on more realistic targets, the Jays were used and discarded by the game’s best player during what turned out to be one of the franchise’s most disappointing off-seasons in recent memory. The Jays were played like a fiddle and so were a majority of their fans and media.

So much for the addition of the two-way phenom. All the Jays got out of it was a dragon and a lot of wasted time.