The worst-kept secret in all of baseball has been that the Dodgers will be putting together an aggressive run at Angels two-way superstar free agent Shohei Ohtani this winter. LA has wanted Ohtani in Dodger blue for some time now, and this is their chance to make it happen.

Ohtani is expected to leave the Angels this offseason after the team once again couldn’t show him that they could field a winning team. The Dodgers are one of the few teams across baseball that can offer Ohtani both the financial compensation that he will command, and the winning organization that he covets.

President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman addressed the potential pursuit of the two-way superstar, and while he can’t speak to specific free agents, he definitely hinted at things.

“Obviously we can’t talk about free agents or impending free agents. But, from our standpoint what has been our mindset, and the great fortune that our ownership has provided us to be aggressive, to go out and put the best team on the field that we can.”

Friedman all but said that the team will be going after Ohtani this winter. The Dodgers have been favorites to land the superstar for some time now, and that hasn’t changed whatsoever.

If anything, LA getting swept out of the postseason in the manner that they did could help them. Now Ohtani can be seen as the missing piece to help this team get over the hump, rather than him joining a team that saw major success in the postseason this season.

Friedman continued with his thoughts about the team possibly going after Ohtani, and he reiterated that LA will field a strong team next season.

“For us, we’re extremely angry, disappointed with how these last two postseasons have gone and we’re gonna do everything we can to put ourselves in position for it not to happen next year. What that means exactly, I don’t know yet. But I do feel very confident that when we show up in Arizona in February, we’re gonna have a team that has very legit championship operations and then it’s about going out and taking care of that first part of the goal in the regular season and doing whatever we can to not be here again next year.”

Friedman can talk all he wants, but unless the Dodgers land Ohtani, it won’t mean anything. The team has been waiting for this moment for some time now, so they need to get the job done.

Fans are expecting Ohtani to be a part of the Dodgers next season and for the foreseeable future. If that doesn’t happen, it will be very hard to sell this team to them, especially if we see more of the same in how they’ve built the roster in recent years.