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Now that the cone of silence has been removed, º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøgeneral manager Ross Atkins did at least confirm those details to reporters on Wednesday. Though it’s still not a subject he otherwise wishes to revisit at chatty length and you can see why.

Atkins frames it as discretion and respecting the unicorn’s directives, which surely no longer apply. Wouldn’t clarify, for example, whether the meet-up occurred on Dec. 4, when the GM ducked out of a scheduled in-person with journalists at the winter meetings in Nashville, going Zoom-y instead from an undisclosed location. Or some other date, some unidentified place where, gosh, media hordes never caught a sniff or a glimpse.

But five days later, Ohtani signed a record 10-year, $700-million (U.S.) contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Jays Nation mourned what might have been.

“We were obviously very disappointed with the outcome, and it was a very difficult phone call to receive,’’ Atkins acknowledged in his first public remarks about the big fish that wriggled away, if ever Ohtani was actually considering biting at the lure the Jays angled.

“At the same time, (it was an) incredible process and group effort and collaboration that I feel so good about. Not only that process but what it meant to be in that position for the organization, for the city, for the country.

“There’s no doubt in my mind he was exceptionally attracted to this country, this city, this team. We felt incredible about the process, but we moved on.’’

Atkins spun it as a positive experience and no hard feelings. Except the skeptical view is that the Jays were taken for a merry ride, cunningly orchestrated by Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo, to maximize and uber-monetize offers from other bidders. Atkins adamantly denied he’d been manipulated.

“Absolutely not. I feel strongly otherwise. We feel really good about the process. It was an incredible offer from ownership to business to baseball people coming together. Not the outcome we wanted, but feel really good about the process and absolutely felt like it was authentic and real.’’

Sure. Pull the other one.