TORONTO -- Shohei Ohtani did indeed board one of the Dodgers' two team planes to Toronto this World Series, squaring off against one of the teams that was a finalist for him in free agency two winters ago and jokingly claiming no take-backs when Blue Jays manager John Schneider deadpanned that Ohtani should return the team gear he received during his recruitment.

So Ohtani's dog, Decoy, will get to keep his Toronto Blue Jays jersey, cap and jacket after all.

"I plan to keep it because it was something that was a gift," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton during Thursday's World Series media day.

The series provided fodder to look back at the whirlwind final week of Ohtani's free agency tour in December 2023, when Ohtani visited the Blue Jays' spring training complex in Dunedin, Florida, (and visited Dodger Stadium) before an unsubstantiated media report placed him on a plane to Toronto.

A day after that report, Ohtani announced he was signing a record 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers, where he won the National League MVP and the World Series in his first season. Now back in the World Series against the Blue Jays, Schneider joked it was time to reclaim some of the gear.

"I hope he brought his hat, the Blue Jays hat that he took from us in our meeting, I hope he brought it back finally -- and the jacket for Decoy," Schneider quipped. "It's like, give us our stuff back already."

In the two years since picking Los Angeles, Ohtani has spoken highly of the Blue Jays' pitch whenever he's been asked about it. This will be his second time playing in Toronto since spurning them; he slugged a home run amidst a shower of boos in his first at-bat at the Rogers Centre last April.

"It's an unfortunate reality as a free agent that you only get to really pick one team," Ohtani said. "I'm sure as a player you want to play with different kinds of teams, different circumstances, but the decision had to be made. But again, this organization (the Dodgers) has been superb. They have a lot of awesome people."

'That was a gift': Ohtani declines John Schneider's request to give Blue Jays stuff back