The Chicago Cubs must pivot to Plan B.

Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers have agree to a 10-year, $700 million contract, the biggest in Major League Baseball history. The Cubs were among the finalists to sign Ohtani but for the second time fell short in their efforts to land him.

Ohtani announced the deal on Instagram on Saturday, and his agent, Nez Balelo, confirmed the terms of the contract.

“This is a unique, historic contract for a unique, historic player,” Balelo said in a statement.

The Cubs were among seven finalists to sign Ohtani in 2017 when he made the jump from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball to MLB. In the lead-up to signing with the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani also met with the Cubs, Seattle Mariners, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants.

At the time the Cubs were coming off their third consecutive year of reaching at least the National League Championship Series and had won the World Series in 2016.

“We had things rolling pretty well at that point,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer recalled last month of their 2017 recruitment. “It doesn’t surprise me that he took a meeting with us even though us and Texas were the only teams not on the West Coast. That’s why we were outliers. … We had it rolling and I think he was intrigued.”

The Cubs, though, faced a big disadvantage. Ohtani made clear he wanted to pitch and be a designated hitter, but the DH did not yet exist in the NL.

“We knew that was always going to be an uphill climb,” Hoyer said. “And at that time, there were a lot of questions about whether he was hurt or not. I can’t remember the details anymore of how many innings he had missed at the end of the year, but there were definitely questions about whether he was hurt, would he need Tommy John, so the ability to DH as opposed to play outfield was something that was discussed at that time.

“It doesn’t surprise me that at the end he picked an AL team, but you wish you could roll back the clock and take a shot at it again.”

After missing out again on Ohtani, the Cubs must regroup and plot their next moves. Star players remain available in free agency or through a trade. Among the most notable is 25-year-old Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Yamamoto’s posting window remains open until 4 p.m. Jan. 4, though he is expected to sign well before that date.

A reunion with outfielder Cody Bellinger can’t be ruled out, either, until he signs. He remains a fit if the length of the contract makes sense for the Cubs.

Those other options, however, wouldn’t lessen the sting of the Cubs missing out on Ohtani again.

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