By BETH HARRIS | AP Sports Writer
LOS ANGELES — Nearly all the mystery around Shohei Ohtani’s unprecedented free agency was revealed over the last week, yet baseball fans kept sniffing around on a most fuzzy question.
Just who was the pup sitting on Ohtani’s lap when he was voted AL MVP for the second time last month?
Fans speculated the dog’s name could have been a hint at his intentions — What if the pooch was named Dodger? Or Giant? Or Blue Jay?
All a Decoy, turns out.
Introduced by the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday after agreeing to a $700 million, 10-year deal, Ohtani revealed that the brown and white dog who joined him on television last month is named Dekopin or Decopin in Japanese, depending on the transliteration — but he suggests Americans call him Decoy.
“I figured it would be hard for American people to pronounce it, so he has an American name,” Ohtani said via translator Ippei Mizuhara.
Ohtani didn’t speak to reporters after winning his MVP award, and the dog’s name never surfaced while Ohtani stayed silent amid highly secretive free agent talks. He was asked about the dog twice during Thursday’s news conference.
By the time Ohtani announced Saturday that he’d picked the Dodgers, even his new teammates were eager to learn more about his furry friend.
“I’d like to think it was named Walker but I guess I’ll find out soon,” pitcher Walker Buehler tweeted.
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