THANKSGIVING DAY RUMOR: OHTANI IS ON THE WAY!

First things first, HAPPY THANKSGIVING from all of us at BYB to all of you. We hope that you spend the day with friends and family making memories, enjoying all of your family traditions and eating a lot of good food. The holidays are OFFICIALLY here now.

So now that the holidays are here we all probably have a wish list item or two. At the top of my Yankee wish list this year would have to be making an exciting free agent splash. What would be a more exciting splash then signing Shohei Otani? Or....is it Shohei Ohtani? Whatever the spelling, he's an exciting wish list item for any team.

I am trying not to get ahead of myself here but media reports everywhere are running with the Yankees as the "favorite" and likely team to sign him. The more hype I read, the more excited I get. Look at ESPN, and New York Post and the NY Daily News stories. ALL of them say insiders are giving the Yankees the best odds. Rumors can be wrong, but man....let's hope this one is right on the money!

ESPN says that cities that have a large Japanese population might have a greater chance is signing him (duh) and other Japanese players could be great ambassadors for their teams. It will be interesting to see if or how those factors will play a role in any of this.

I love the confidence that scouts have with Ohtani signing with the Yankees but the Dodgers are another good fit for him. Can you imagine a starting rotation led by Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw? That would be a devastating 1-2 punch. The Dodgers certainly have that Japan tie working in their favor with Yu Darvish, Kenta Maeda and even Hiroki Kuroda too before his Yankee days. The fact that he would also hit in the lineup easily could be appealing to him.

I wouldn't count the Seattle Mariners out either. They need pitching and have a history of signing Japanese players. They have ambassadors in Ichiro Suzuki and Hisashi Iwakuma but not as much money to sign him and aren't as competitive as other interested teams.

What about the Texas Rangers?  They need the pitching and they have the most money available to sign Ohtani but not by much. Maybe the small difference in money and the promise of being part of a contending young Yankees team will convince him to come to the Bronx.

I hope all of these expert reports are true and maybe Masahiro Tanaka can recruit and make this a done deal!

Happy Thanksgiving BYB family!

--Jeana Bellezza
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @nyprincessj