Shohei Ohtani did not sign with the Toronto Blue Jays. Blame Drake.

Shohei Ohtani may be the most gifted baseball player we’ll see in our lifetime. Yesterday (December 9) it was announced that he was signing a long-term deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a staggering US$700 million–which is close a BILLION Canadian dollars. (Forget that the Dodgers are already US$80 million over the salary cap and how this is incredibly unfair to teams in smaller markets and that a huge chunk of that will be deferred until after his retirement…)

For a while, it looked like the Toronto Blue Jays were in the running but in the end, ownership at Rogers decided that was just too rich. I’ll confess to having my hopes up, but what are you gonna do?

Well, for one thing, we can blame The Drake Curse. Drake got way too far ahead of everyone by posting himself in an Ohtani Jays jersey all over social media. He jinxed it.

From The Daily Mail:

“‘The Drake curse is undefeated,’ wrote one fan on social media, alluding to the perception that the 37-year-old Grammy winner curses the teams and athletes he supports.

“He’s been accused of cursing everyone from the 2016 Golden State Warriors to the 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide football team, and although Drake’s Raptors did win a title that same year, the rapper regularly loses massive bets, including $1 million in last year’s World Cup.”

Nice one, Drake. If you believe in jinxes, of course.