WOW.

The Angels have apparently won the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes. UNREAL. We knew they were in the hunt, and then we got word that the Halos had made the shortlist of teams that Ohtani was considering. They made the move of sending Jacob Pearson to the Twins to get some more bonus pool money.

They were right in the thick of this once-in-a-lifetime free agent frenzy the whole time, but I never really thought the day would come when I see the following tweet pop up in my Twitter feed:

My hands are shaking right now from excitement and disbelief, to the point where I can barely type. I’m in shock. The Angels, and GM Billy Eppler, bested every other franchise that was seeking Ohtani’s ultra-hyped talents and multi-faceted skillset, sending a message to the rest of MLB about just what kind of franchise they are these days. They are the Upton-signing, Maitan-getting, Ohtani-acquiring front office powerhouse that also has Mike Trout, Andrelton Simmons and a cast of ballers that will make next year’s season one for the ages.

Here’s the statement from Ohtani himself, your newest Halos player:

The Angels beat out the Mariners, Rangers, Cubs, Padres, Dodgers and Giants, who were the other teams Ohtani was considering on his shortlist. HE CHOSE THE ANGELS! The Angels have $2.315 million in bonus money that they can offer the pitcher/slugger, and even though a couple other clubs had more dough to give him, HE CHOSE THE ANGELS!

Shohei Otani is 23 years old, and is a Japanese baseball legend already. He played five seasons with the Nippon Ham Fighters, and slashed .286/.358/.500 at the plate. Oh, and he also pitches like a madman, too; in Japan, he has an ERA of 2.52 with 624 strikeouts in 543 innings...and HE CHOSE THE ANGELS!

The Angels just gave all of their fans one hell of a holiday gift, in the form of a Japanese superstar that can hit like a stud and pitch like a stone cold killer. This is the greatest day to be an Angels fan in a long, long time.

ALL HAIL BILLY EPPLER!!!!!

We’ll have much more to come here at Halos Heaven, obviously. For now, I need to soak this in and get my emotions under control because I AM LOSING IT RIGHT NOW! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update 11:30am PST:

The Ohtani news has the entire Halosphere in a state of euphoria. Even the players are stoked af.