There’s a big question looming after the San Francisco Giants swung and missed at getting the hottest baseball player on the planet: Shohei Ohtani.
He decided to sign with the rival Los Angeles Dodgers instead.
Now, Giants legend Buster Posey said he thinks the city’s reputation may be part of the problem.
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Ohtani's stats as a slugger and a pitcher basically match up to Babe Ruth's at this point in his career.
He's an impossibly rare talent with that combo and it's why the Dodgers have signed him to a 10-year, $700 million dollar deal.
The San Francisco Giants reportedly offered Ohtani an almost identical contract than the one he got from Dodgers, but they knew it was gonna be a tough sell.
"When it comes to Shohei Ohtani, they recognized that he had a comfort level in Southern California, and that was going to be a difficult thing,” said Andrew Baggarly, writer for The Athletic.
Till now, Ohtani had been playing for the Angels in Anaheim, just down the road from LA.
But, in an exclusive conversation with Baggarly, former Giants legend and current co-owner of the team Buster Posey said San Francisco's image also played a small part in Ohtani’s decision.
"There's been a bit of uneasiness with the city itself as far as the state of the city with crime and drugs," Posey said to Baggarly. "There was some reservation."
And Posey says they've got that from other free agents too.
"What I heard from Buster Posey is what I have heard from large employers and what I have heard from businesses that San Francisco needs to do a better job at progress on its public safety challenges,” said San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents the district where the Giants play.
He's also been one of the members of the board of supervisors who's been pushing to try to get the police department back to full staffing, and has been an advocate of tougher tools to deal with the city's fentanyl epidemic.
"If we can't make progress on police staffing, we're going to have a hard time making progress on anything. And in some ways, I think this reputational issue that playing out now with a Major League Baseball player, is emblematic of why we need to take this seriously," said Dorsey.
He also points out that the city has been making strides in getting a handle on those issues.
For fans of the Giants and baseball in general, perception and reality are often blurred together.
Matt Levine lives in the city and often works close to Oracle Park.
"I do the pedicab on the Embarcadero. So, we always hear from people, and usually their reaction is,’ I can't believe how lovely the city is. I thought it was going to be like ‘Mad Max or something,’” said Levine.
Mike Pope has been visiting San Francisco from Seattle. He's a big baseball fan and voiced some concern about all the money involved in the deal Ohtani signed.
He's been in San Francisco one week and has already had his car broken into.
"Yes, I've had my car windows broken, but I don't think it's any worse than any other city is, is it?" he said.
