Maple Leafs' Domi explains his Shohei Ohtani post on Friday

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About that Shohei Ohtani post.

Maple Leafs centre Max Domi, as it turns out, was just as excited as thousands of other Blue Jays fans on Friday that the free-agent superstar apparently was about to sign with the Jays.

Late Friday morning on X (formerly known as Twitter), Domi posted “LFG @BlueJays !!!” with a GIF of an exuberant George Springer rounding first base. Some took it to show that Domi had inside knowledge about an impending Ohtani signing in Toronto. 

Not quite. 

“I was so pumped, honestly,” Domi said on Saturday morning. “I’m just a Jays fan, a Toronto sports fan in general. 

“I tweeted it out because I was like, ‘OK, it looks like it’s happening.’

“Then I went to this event I had, and a few hours later, I looked at my phone and all my friends and family are texting me, like, what do you know? When did I become the MLB insider? 

“I have no idea what’s going on. I don’t know the guy at all. I’m just a Jays fan. I was really hopeful that he comes and still hopeful, so we’ll see.”

Not only was Ohtani not flying to Toronto from southern California on a private jet to sign with the Jays, he hadn’t travelled nor had he come to a decision on where he will next play baseball. This despite a wild day of speculation indicating otherwise.

We now know the actual outcome: Ohtani, to the disappointment of Domi and Jays fans in the city and across the country, signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday afternoon.