The superstar slugger wasn't signing with the Blue Jays either, announcing instead the next day he was going to the Dodgers on a 10-year, $700 million deal.

Like many fellow Blue Jays fans, Osorio's heart immediately sank.

"The plane lands, and I'm like, 'S—,'" Osorio recalled this week. "We get there just in time to see Robert getting out of this plane and going into a car. That was it."

There had been plenty of smoke, but no actual fire.

"I think if we had probably Googled the plane, we maybe could have found a photo of Herjavec and the plane somewhere," Osorio laughed upon reflection this week, noting that Herjavec is well-known in Canada from his appearances on TV shows like "Dragon Den" and "Shark Tank."

"But I was just so hyped," Osorio added. "Like, [Ohtani] has to be on it. He's coming. He's gonna be a Blue Jay. We're gonna win the World Series."

For the first time since that day, Ohtani and the Dodgers returned to Toronto on Friday for a three-game series with the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.

By now, enough time has passed that the flight has faded from daily conversation — around the Blue Jays, the Dodgers and a baseball industry that at the time had frenzied over the situation.

"I was as surprised as any fans," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton this week, "in terms of the news that was going around."

Still, the storyline will loom as a subplot not only this weekend, but for possibly months and years ahead for both teams.

...continued

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.