It took some four hours of work, roughly 1,200 Rubik’s Cubes, and years’ worth of knowledge with the six-side, 54-panel puzzle.
Ever since high school, minor league Dodgers reliever Jack Dreyer has been able to master the Rubik’s Cube; getting so good he not only solves them in as little as 20 seconds, but has learned to arrange them on canvasses by the hundreds to create multicolored murals.
So, when the Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani to his record-breaking $700-million contract in late 2023, Dreyer decided to commemorate the moment with a unique piece of art, creating a Rubik’s Cube portrait of the two-way star that was displayed at the team’s Camelback Ranch facility last spring.
“I was like, ‘Hey, he’s the face of baseball right now,’” Dreyer recalled Wednesday. “I think it would be kind of cool to have the fans get to see something like that.”
Read more: Roki Sasaki’s first official Dodgers outing is a rousing success
Dreyer is unsure if Ohtani ever saw the piece. And now, he said with a laugh (and hint of sorrow), it no longer exists, having been knocked over and shattered last year.
Will the 26-year-old left-hander build Ohtani a new one?
“I definitely could,” he said, “if that’s something that he would want to see.”
The good news for Dreyer: He wouldn’t have to walk far to find Ohtani and ask.
Unlike last year, when the undrafted University of Iowa product started the season as just another talented but raw prospect in the organization, Dreyer is in big league camp this spring, sitting just 14 stalls away from Ohtani in the Dodgers’ spring clubhouse.
Dreyer hasn’t discussed his hobby with Ohtani yet, but it has become one of the spring’s more lighthearted subplots, with everyone from Tony Gonsolin to Jackson Ferris to Yoshinobu Yamamoto toying around with the cubes Dreyer has brought into the room.
“He carries a Rubik’s Cube everywhere he goes,” manager Dave Roberts joked. “Some guys carry a golf club. He carries a Rubik’s Cube.”
Pitcher Jack Dreyer, who was promoted to the Dodger 40-man roster in November, can solve a Rubik’s Cube fast. How fast? Check it out. pic.twitter.com/zdaLXvMJOP
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) February 20, 2025
According to Roberts, Dreyer (and his Rubik’s Cube) almost reached the majors last year, with the…