According to just about every report, the Toronto Blue Jays appear to be a serious player in the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes.

With the MLB's most-coveted free agent ever set to earn the expected largest contract in North American sports history, there's a chance Ohtani could end up calling the Rogers Centre home in the future after playing the last six years with the Los Angeles Angels.

But not everyone appears to be a fan of that possibility.

Former MLB journeyman and current broadcaster Jerry Hairston Jr. took to SportsNet LA last night to pitch Ohtani to join the LA Dodgers franchise — and found a way to insult Toronto in the process.

"I've played for a lot of teams man, LA, Chicago, New York, all over this great country of ours. You played for the Angels. Beautiful franchise, but like Tommy Lasorda said, 'if you want to be a real angel, you got to put on the Dodger blue and play at Dodger Stadium,'" Hairston Jr. said.

Mic drop 🎤@TheRealJHair with the sales pitch to Shohei Ohtani. pic.twitter.com/oGUTFt0Bxo

— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) December 7, 2023

Hairston Jr. played for nine teams in his MLB career, including two years with the Dodgers to close out his career, so it makes sense why he'd pitch Ohtani on switching sides in LA.

However, it's the lines about the Blue Jays that got Hairston under the skin of Jays fans.

"Now, I've heard that the Toronto Blue Jays are involved, great franchise," Hairston said.

"Oh, Canada, you'd have to listen to two national anthems up there, bro. The taxes would crush you, you're gonna have a chance to make 500 or 600 million. Canada's too cold, man!"

"You're in your lovely Newport Beach home. You can commute if you want to — stay there — to Dodger Stadium every single night. The fan base here is electric, the stadium is always rocking. I guarantee you every single year you're gonna have a chance to play in the postseason, win a World Series, hopefully — rings, plural."

Well, that's certainly an opinion or two. Besides the fact that a second national anthem adds a total of maybe 100 extra minutes throughout the season, the other few components don't seem to make much sense either as a selling point.

The baseball season runs from late March to early November — it's not like Ohtani would have to be shovelling his driveaway to get to games, and he'd be free to travel back to wherever he wishes in the offseason.

Hairston might be right that the Dodgers have been a perennial playoff contender, but they've won only two World Series titles in the last 35 years. And while they've had trouble advancing in the postseason of late, Toronto has also qualified in each of the last two years and three of the past four.

And lastly, California isn't exactly known for its relaxed income tax laws, with TurboTax ranking it as the highest in the US in 2021.

"There is nothing like wearing Dodger blue," Hairston concluded. "You'll be the West Coast Babe Ruth. Shohei, this is the place to be."

In the coming week, we should have a clearer picture of where Ohtani ends up. But we can almost guarantee wherever he picks, it won't be because of the national anthem before the game.