Ultimately, it doesn’t matter that Shohei Ohtani offered the Angels the chance to match the Dodgers’ offer, nor whether he would have signed with them if they had.

He ended up where he was supposed to be.

The point became clear Tuesday when Ohtani returned to Angel Stadium. Exactly one year after playing his last game for the Angels, Ohtani stepped into the batter’s box of his former stadium for the first time as a visiting player.

He did not receive deafening applause. He was not confronted with angry jeers.

Instead, he was welcomed to a half-empty stadium.

The Angels always disappoint, and this was the latest example. There were some shouts of “MVP!” up and down the right-field line as Ohtani prepared to take the first pitch from Angels starter Reid Detmers, but those were fans in Dodgers jerseys invading this baseball wasteland.

“To be able to play in front of the Anaheim fans was the most important thing,” Ohtani said in Japanese. “I have nothing but gratitude.”

Ohtani’s heart was in the right place, but in reality the Dodgers were playing in front of as many home fans as the last-place Angels. The stadium gradually filled in the first few innings, but even then about half the crowd was dressed in blue.

Ohtani wanted to come back to this?

Before Ohtani signed his 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers, his camp went back to Angels owner Arte Moreno to give him a chance to match their offer. Moreno declined.

Speaking to reporters the day before the start of this two-game series in Anaheim, Ohtani would not say he would have returned to the Angels if they had agreed to the terms of the long-delayed deal he signed with the Dodgers. Nor did he say he wouldn’t have done so.

Ohtani is extremely guarded, and that was the case here too, but there were subtle indications that he was bothered by the Angels’ lack of interest in keeping him.

He said he was looking forward to playing in Angel Stadium and playing in front of Angels fans, but said nothing about the organization. He said that instead of thinking about what the Angels did or didn’t do, he was “grateful for the teams that rated me highly.” Did that mean he thought the Angels didn’t hold him in the same regard?

Imagine Ohtani wanted to re-sign the Angels. What does that mean? Nothing. The player doesn’t always know best.

Three years ago. When Ohtani was told by Angels manager Joe Maddon and general manager Perry Minasian that he would play every game, Ohtani initially thought they were trying to pressure him into quitting pitching. Ohtani didn’t know it at the time, but they were doing him a favor. The directive changed his career, as he won two Most Valuable Player Awards over the next three seasons. He learned that he was capable of more than he thought possible.

Moreno is said to have done Ohtani a similar favor last winter.

It’s important to remember why Ohtani suggested to the Dodgers and other teams that they pay him just $2 million a year and defer the rest of his $70 million salary: He wanted them to use the money they saved to sign other talented players.

Moreno had no intention of doing so, especially with Mike Trout set to serve another seven years and Anthony Rendon another three.

The Dodgers spent money. They traded Tyler Glasnow and signed him to a contract extension. They signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto. They signed Teoscar Hernández. They didn’t necessarily invest their savings wisely, but they did what Ohtani wanted them to do. They did their best to improve their roster.

Their 10-inning, 6-2 victory was the first meaningful September game Ohtani ever played at Angel Stadium. The Dodgers have the best record in the National League and a 5½-game lead in their division over second-place San Diego Padres. Ohtani is on the verge of reaching the major league postseason for the first time.

“So far,” Ohtani said, “I’ve never been in such a good position in September.”

Baseball is entertainment, and Ohtani entertains more people, thanks to the Dodgers’ greater reach. Their reach is so great that they’ve turned his homecoming game into a home game.