Secrecy around Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins’ whereabouts fuels more Shohei Ohtani speculation

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Where in the world is Ross Atkins? But, about an hour and a half ahead of Atkins’ scheduled afternoon availability, the Blue Jays public relations staff sent an email that advised the writers that due to “a scheduling conflict,” Atkins would not be able to meet with the media in person and instead would speak to reporters over Zoom. There has been a buzz in Nashville that teams vying to sign Shohei Ohtani could be meeting with the two-way superstar and/or his camp this week, and naturally, with the Blue Jays among the teams breathlessly pursuing Ohtani, Atkins’ curious absence set off more speculation that he was, in fact, elsewhere potentially wooing the reigning American League MVP. It’s also worth noting that Blue Jays manager John Schneider had also originally been scheduled to meet with the media on Monday afternoon at the site of the Winter Meetings, but last Friday, the team’s PR staff rescheduled his availability for Tuesday afternoon. However, Atkins said the team, which is focussed on position player additions this winter, has had “opportunities to make decisions and move and acquire players via trade and free agency, a few more via trade, but want to make sure we are prioritizing and make sure that we have as much information as possible and are confident that we are in a position to make our team better.” Atkins later clarified that those aforementioned opportunities still exist, “We just haven’t decided to move on anything as of yet.” At this time of year, teams try to keep as much information under lock and key.