Red Sox told they're out of the running for Japanese free agent Shohei Ohtani

Well, that didn’t take long.

The Red Sox are among a handful of teams informed Sunday that they would not be invited to make a presentation to Japanese free agent pitcher/slugger Shohei Ohtani  and are effectively out of the running for his services, multiple industry sources confirm.

Ohtani and his representatives told multiple teams today that they would not be considered. According to various reports, the Red Sox were joined by the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins in hearing the news that they were no longer under consideration.

It appears as though Ohtani, 23, prefers to play on the West Coast, perhaps because it’s at least somewhat closer to his native Japan.

Shortly after being posted Friday by his Japanese team, the Nippon Ham Fighters, Ohtani traveled to Los Angeles, home to CAA, the agents chosen to handle his negotiations. He’s prepared to host teams there before making a decision by the Dec. 22 deadline.

The Sox had hoped their past history with Japanese pitchers (Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima and others) as well as an infrastructure within their organization that includes multiple Japanese members of the training staff plus the history and tradition of the franchise would help convince Ohtani to sign with them.

Indeed, the Sox had intended to use Matsuzaka as part of their pitch, with an emphasis on promoting Boston as a hospitable city for Japanese players. Matsuzaka still owns a house in Brookline, years after his career with the Red Sox concluded.

Instead, Ohtani has apparently chosen geography as his number one factor.

The Sox, like most other MLB teams, had acute interest in Ohtani for both his potential impact and relative affordability.

Ohtani is viewed as a possible front-of-the-rotation starter with a fastball that regularly is clocked at 96-98 mph, with two other plus pitches – a split-finger fastball and slider.

But what makes Ohtani especially intriguing is his ability to also contribute offensively. He’s a strong, lefthanded bat with both power and speed and offers teams the option of having him contribute as a hitter on days in which he’s not pitching.

At 23, he was not yet eligible to auction himself off as an unrestricted free agent. Instead, he was limited to team’s remaining international pool money left over from last summer, a figure capped by restrictions.

The Texas Rangers have the most money available at $3.5 million, with the Red Sox ranking near the middle of the pack with approximately $440,000.