Dodgers closing argument to Roki Sasaki offered something the Padres just can’t match
We’ve reached the home stretch of the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes, with three teams still in the running: the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San Diego Padres and, surprisingly enough, the Toronto Blue Jays. As part of this final stage, Sasaki has been making the rounds, making multi-day visits to both San Diego and Toronto in recent days. While the righty had met in person with interested teams before, these trips were different: a chance to not only take in the city that could become his new home but also meet the players who could become his new teammates.
Both San Diego and Toronto seemed to feel good about how their vists went. The Padres, in particular, pulled out all the stops, arranging dinner at a player’s house as well as meetups with friend and mentor Yu Darvish and star third baseman Manny Machado. It’s hard to know which way Sasaki is leaning at this point, but San Diego said farewell feeling cautiously optimistic about their chances.
On Tuesday evening, however, word broke that the Dodgers, too, had gotten one final meeting with Sasaki. And Los Angeles took that opportunity to make clear to the 23-year-old ace that they have assets the Padres can’t hope to match.
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Dodgers stars come out for final meeting with Roki Sasaki
Details are scarce as to what exactly Sasaki did on his Dodgers tour. But one that that is clear, per Fabian Ardaya and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, is that the stars were out.
“The Dodgers’ meeting would give them something not afforded at the Wasserman office meetings (but permitted in his city tours with the Blue Jays and Padres): the presence of players to bolster the team’s pitch,” Rosenthal wrote.
It’s unclear just which players were present. But you’d have to think that L.A.’s pitch involved one or both of Sasaki’s countrymen, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Of course, the options don’t stop there: Maybe the Dodgers had Mookie Betts swing by, or Freddie Freeman, or Blake Snell. You get the point; while Sasaki didn’t allow for players to attend his first in-person meetings with teams, he is now, and that allows Los Angeles to flex its biggest advantage in these sweepstakes.
Sure, the Padres are plenty talented in their own right, and they were within a whisker of bouncing the Dodgers from the postseason in last year’s NLDS. But San Diego simply can’t keep pace with L.A.’s increasingly star-studded roster, a roster that’s added Snell and Hyeseong Kim while bringing back Teoscar Hernandez this winter. The Dodgers roll deeper than any team in the league, and the team put that on full display in their closing argument to Sasaki. Maybe the righty will value other factors more highly, but there’s a reason that Los Angeles is still the favorite here.
