NASHVILLE —
Everyone who gathered at the Gaylord Opryland for Major League Baseball’s winter meetings this week asked the same question over and over again: Which team is going to sign Shohei Ohtani?
For one franchise, Ohtani’s decision will define the offseason. For other prominent free agents, it will finally move their markets forward. For Taro Abe, it might change his life.
Abe, a reporter with the Japanese newspaper Chunichi Shimbun, isn’t just tasked with the around-the-clock work that comes with chronicling Ohtani’s free-agency developments. Abe and his family — his wife and nine-year-old daughter — would likely have to move from their home in Irvine if the two-way star chooses not to sign with the Dodgers or Angels.