Blue Jays in Nashville; a preview of Winter Meetings

The murky motives in the chase for Shohei Ohtani

The annual Winter Meetings, baseball’s four-day meet-and-greet, trade-and-sign-fest will unfold next week in a familiar locale over the sport’s recent history, with the host hotel being the sprawling, overblown Opryland Resort, in Nashville, Tennessee.

The annual horsehide lobby-centric convention commences Sunday and runs through the Rule 5 draft on Wednesday morning. It’s either heaven or “what day is this?”If you are a fan of the Grand Old Opry, fond of over-the-top Christmas celebrations, of a hotel where it’s often necessary to Google map your room … or if your idea of a good time is staring up at the lighted star on top of one of a half-dozen, giant trees elbow-to-elbow with a dozen families that just got off Trailways buses in the parking lot, then these Winter Meetings are for you. Truth is the Opryland is to Nashville what Dolly Parton is to Taylor Swift. The difference is in Eras. 

JAYS ULTIMATE GOALS

The Jays front-office heads to Music City with a major task of replacing t…