Which MLB Team Has the Best Shot at Landing Shohei Ohtani?

Texas Rangers

2017 Starting Rotation Performance: 6.7 fWAR, 4.66 ERA, 5.06 SIERA, 16.3% strikeout rate

Current Rotation: Cole Hamels, Martin Perez, Doug Fister, Clayton Blackburn, Yohander Mendez

Potential 2018 Impact

The Rangers have been laying the groundwork for this opportunity for quite some time, so it shouldn't be overly surprising that they made the cut as one of the two teams not residing on the west coast.

After two straight trips to the postseason via winning the American League West, Texas took a step back in 2017, selling off Yu Darvish at the non-waiver trade deadline en route to a 78-84 record. General manager Jon Daniels has already nabbed Doug Fister off the free agent market, but as we can see from the above stats and current rotation, they need some more help.

That help is necessary since Hamels seems to be on the decline -- he'll be entering his age-34 season fresh off producing a 4.90 SIERA, which was the first time his SIERA has ever been higher than 4.00. While more work will need to be done following Ohtani's decision (even if he comes to Texas), it's clear to see how he can immediately make an impact in the front end of Texas' rotation as they also try to reload and get back to October.

Feasible Long-Term Fit?

If we were having this conversation last winter, there'd be a lot more going for the Rangers. Not only would they have still had Darvish on the team, but they could've pumped up the fact that they were a World Series contender after two straight postseason trips. Neither of those things are the case now, but the organization does at least boast a recent track record of bringing over a Japanese talent and watching him excel during his time with the club.

Having an open spot at designated hitter -- which is currently manned by Willie Calhoun, who owns just 37 big league plate appearances -- could be an attractive selling point, though.