The Roki Sasaki sweepstakes have been dynamic, everchanging, and even unprecedented, at times.
For Los Angeles Dodgers fans, it can feel painstakingly slow, despite being an early favorite to land the right-hander.
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The Dodgers were early favorites for a few reasons. Having two Japanese legends not just on the roster, but the same pitching rotation in Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto was seen as a huge plus.
Not to mention, the trio had won a world championship together for team Japan at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, taking down Team USA in the finals.
However, a free agent process such as this one, being the favorite doesn’t mean much when there is rarely any new information on where Sasaki, or his agent Joel Wolfe, may be leaning.
The only other outlet of where the phenom will land is by way of MLB executives.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported that the executives claim a new, non-Dodgers, team has stepped up as the favorites to land Sasaki.
That team plays about 124 miles south of Dodger Stadium, the San Diego Padres.
The World Baseball Classic connection is also linked to why Sasaki would potentially choose a team that the defending World Series champs beat in the NLDS.
Yu Darvish, a veteran pitcher for the Friars, was openly upset when Ohtani and Yamamoto came to the Dodgers in 2024, and that his own team — in the midst of clearing as much roster payroll as they could— was barely considered.
“Frankly speaking, it would have been nice if they came here, if they were my teammates,” Darvish said during 2024 Spring Training. “But I’m happy for them. They’re in a very good organization.”
The Athletic’s Dennis Lin reported last month that Darvish is “a godfather-like figure among active Japanese players”, and also said that the veteran pitcher, “is said to badly want the young right-hander as his teammate.”
It is worth noting that Wolfe, Sasaki’s agent, is also Darvish’s MLB representation.
Another point that Nightengale describes is money, which the Dodgers have a great deal of.
No matter how much money a team has, because Sasaki is under-25, his signing will be limited to a number between $5.1 million and $7.5 million which is the international signing bonus pool allotment.
