Do you have proof we're behind? The bottom line is, I don't think anyone in the public has any clue where any teams stand. We could be the preferred destination for Ohtani, or we could be dead last.
If I had to guess, I'd think we'd probably be in the upper third somewhere. We have the payroll to support a winner (and a nice future salary for him). We have a culture pretty supportive of people from other countries, and a decently sized Japanese community. We have a forward thinking front office investing in things like the high performance department, and soon new spring training facilities. We have the capability of letting him DH. On the negative side, he probably grew up watching west coast teams and likely dreamed of playing for one of them. The time difference would also be better for him on the west coast, which could help with sponsorship deals in Japan. Our stadium would also almost certainly be a negative.