Ross Atkins says he was "very disappointed" that Shohei Ohtani turned down the Toronto Blue Jays earlier this offseason in favor of signing a 10-year, $700 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Atkins confirmed Ohtani visited Toronto's spring training facility in Dunedin, Florida, but wouldn't say whether the meeting occurred Dec. 4, when Atkins spoke to reporters at the winter meetings via Zoom rather than in person. Ohtani announced his agreement with the Dodgers five days later.

"We were obviously very disappointed with the outcome, and it was a very difficult phone call to receive, one of the more difficult ones in my career," Atkins said. "At the same time, [it was an] incredible process and group effort and collaboration that I feel so good about, not only that process but what it meant to be in that position for the organization, for the city, for the country. There's no doubt in my mind he was exceptionally attracted to this country, this city, this team. We felt incredible about the process, but we moved on."

The general manager added that he didn't think the Blue Jays were used to extract a better offer from a competing bidder.

"Absolutely not," he said. "I feel strongly otherwise. We feel really good about the process. It was an incredible effort from ownership to business to baseball, people coming together. Not the outcome we wanted, but feel really good about the process and absolutely felt like it was authentic and real."