The free agency of Shohei Ohtani has given hope to many baseball fans. While the sweepstakes involve teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Texas Rangers, and the Boston Red Sox, the list doesn’t end there. Though the interested teams and Ohtani have been quite silent due to his request, it is understandable that many must be approaching him behind closed doors. So as of now, there is at least one clarity in the mystical free agency of Ohtani – the Seattle Mariners aren’t going after him. This has deflated their fans, who were quick to react to his news.

The Mariners have a deep connection with Japanese players. After 1996, they’ve always had a Japanese player in their squad until 2023 broke that streak. Fans hoped that this connection would help in signing Ohtani as it once did in signing the legend Ichiro Suzuki. But now the team has made it clear that they won’t be a part of the sweepstakes for the Japanese superstar and the reasons are quite reasonable.

Why did the Mariners get out of the Shohei Ohtani race?

Though the Sailors weren’t expected to sign “Shotime”, their fans hoped that at least they’d try. The team hasn’t had a good offense in quite some time now. Ohtani would have solved those problems instantly. But with the asking price soaring high, the Sailors increasingly felt that this was out of their payroll. They gradually slowed their pursuit of Ohtani and finally have now taken themselves out of the race, per MLB Trade Rumors.

The reasons for going out of the race were pretty basic. Mariners have quite a few gaps that they need to fill in their squad. If they spend more than $500 million on one player, how will they cover the other gaps? It wouldn’t have been a smart business decision for a team that is looking to rebuild itself. Knowing this, the ownership decided to focus on other targets by leaving this race.

Read more: Top MLB Insider Speaks on Shohei Ohtani’s Press Conference Cancellation, Shares Free Agency Thoughts Amidst Growing $500M Mystery

In 2023, Mariners’ payroll was $148 million. This was even lower than the league average of $165 million. So expecting a team that has been financially prudent to splash over $500 million on Ohtani was always an unfair expectation. Yet, due to them having had Japanese players throughout their recent history, including the legendary Ichiro Suzuki, one had hopes. So after such a disappointing end to the Sailors’ saga for Ohtani, the baseball fans had mixed reactions to this news.

Fans weren’t surprised with the news

Most baseball fans already knew that the Mariners wouldn’t seriously go after Shohei Ohtani. So when the news came, they talked in a light-hearted way. Though a few got sad, most social media was mostly filled with sarcasm and fun comments.

One user asked why Ohtani would join a team that won 54% of its games.

This fan decided that now was the right time to start selling the Dodgers dream.

Maybe this fan has been here before because he seems used to this disappointment.

Quite a high-quality detective stuff in this next tweet.

Finally, this fan decided to report another very important event to the world.

So with the Mariners out of the race, who will sign Ohtani? Could the Rangers succeed in luring the two-way phenom to their camp? Or will the Dodgers dodge everyone else’s moves in order to land the Japanese superstar? The answers will arrive soon as the saga continues.

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