Shohei Ohtani Rumors: Dodgers Have NL West Competition in Sweepstakes for Two-Way Star

We are officially less than a week away from the August 1st trade deadline, and the Shohei Ohtani trade story is getting closer to its climax. The Dodgers are known to have some level of interest. But at this point, that’s not exactly newsworthy.

There’s so much chatter about Ohtani across the majors that it feels like every team is in the race for the superstar – including an NL West rival.

According to a report from MLB Network’s, Jon Morosi, the Diamondbacks are among the teams inquiring about Shohei Ohtani’s availability.

For the past month, Angels Owner, Arte Moreno, has said multiple times that the chances of Ohtani being traded this summer solely depends on how strong his team can finish in terms of wins. Above a .500 winning percentage increases their chances of keeping him for the rest of the season – but below diminishes that possibility.

As interesting as it might sound for the Dbacks to go after Ohtani and basically threaten that they have the farm to do so isn’t as concerning as hearing the same thing from AL East leaders, the Baltimore Orioles.

Morosi has more to say on how the Angels front office responded:

I think the plan still remains – win and he stays, but lose and he goes.

Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Buckle up baseball fans, the game is about to get much more interesting over the next seven days.