In recent years executives for Major League Baseball clubs have tried to imagine where Shohei Ohtani, the intriguing two-way Japanese star, would prefer to play when he arrived in the United States.

Would it be for a distinguished, big-market team like the Yankees? Would he choose a team that allowed him to hit as well as pitch, as he has done in Japan? And would he prefer to play for a team that already had a Japanese player?

At least some of those questions were answered on Sunday, and not in favor of the Yankees, the Boston Red Sox or other East Coast teams. Brian Cashman, the Yankees General Manager, revealed that Ohtani’s representatives informed him on Sunday that Ohtani, one of the most intriguing players to come out of Japan in over a decade, will not choose the Yankees, a team many saw as the front-runner to sign him.

Speaking Sunday night in Stamford, Conn. before his annual rappel down a building for the city’s Heights & Lights event, Cashman said he had learned earlier in the day that Ohtani was not interested in signing with the team, and indicated the reason is that Ohtani prefers a smaller-market team or a team on the West Coast — or both.