The Chicago Cubs are on a roller coaster of emotions chasing Shohei Ohtani

The Chicago Cubs are reportedly out of the running to sign prized free agent, Shohei Ohtani.

Well, maybe they are still in the sweepstakes depending on which insider finds the next nugget of news during a secretive courting process.

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported that the Cubs were out of contention for Ohtani’s services. The Cubs supposedly balked at Ohtani’s reported demand of a 10-year, 500-million-dollar contract. When it comes to Chicago White Sox news, Nightengale is your guy. Anything else, you might want to take with a grain of salt.

The New York Post’s Jon Heyman, Nightengale’s peer, later reported that the Chicago Cubs were not officially eliminated.

He later confirmed the agency representing Ohtani has not ruled out the Cubs.

Team president Jed Hoyer reportedly had a tense exchange with Nightengale about his reporting at the MLB Winter Meetings.

Hoyer later said during his media availability that the team has not been removed from consideration for Ohtani.

Just when one insider with a possible agenda (we are looking at you White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf for the mastermind behind Bob’s report) had the Chicago Cubs out, another has the Cubs right back in the race.

Talk about a roller coaster day.

Then again, this chase has been nothing but the Cubs either being in great shape to get Ohtani to not having a chance in heck.

You can cite Ohtani demanding secrecy in this process. The word on the street is he does not want meetings with other teams getting out.

Maybe that is why the Los Angeles Dodgers front office admonished manager Dave Roberts for revealing a recent meeting.

That meeting along with the Toronto Blue Jays getting an audience is about all we have right now. Otherwise, the insiders are chasing a ghost because Ohtani’s camp is keeping things locked down.

This has been nothing more than a speculation fest with your emotions as collateral damage.

The only thing that we know for certain when it comes to the Cubs and Ohtani is they still have yet to meet with him. Not getting a chance to make a pitch to sign him is a cause for concern. That does not mean we can rule them out unlike what one reporter did.