February 15, 2025
Prior to Roki Sasaki’s post, MLB found no evidence of a handshake deal with the Dodgers

Prior to Roki Sasaki’s post, MLB found no evidence of a handshake deal with the Dodgers

Roki Sasaki of Japan pitches during their Pool B match against the Czech Republic.

Roki Sasaki of Japan pitches during a Pool B game against the Czech Republic at the World Baseball Classic at Tokyo Dome on March 11, 2023. (Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press)

After Roki Sasaki announced on Friday that he would be signing with the Dodgers, it didn’t take long for dissatisfaction to be heard about his free agency.

There has been speculation around sports over the past year that the Dodgers may have reached a handshake agreement with Sasaki before the 23-year-old phenom was even signed by his Japanese club – a process by which players from foreign professional leagues become major league teams for signing made available.

Leading up to this offseason, there were rumors that the Dodgers had some advantage in drafting the star pitcher – a situation in its own right, since Sasaki is not yet 25 years old and therefore was only allowed to sign a minor league contract with an international amateur a modest signing bonus.

“I’ve heard rumors of a deal being done with the Dodgers – you know there’s a plan for him,” former Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel, a teammate of Sasaki’s in Japan last season, told the New York Post in November.

Read more: Roki Sasaki Signs Takeaways: How Much Will He Earn? How good could the Dodgers’ rotation be?

Then it all came to a head on Friday, when just hours after Sasaki agreed to his $6.5 million deal with the Dodgers, a former general manager went public with more viral claims.

“I think you’ll find that there will be multiple teams that will ask the commissioner’s office to investigate this particular signing,” said Jim Bowden, former GM of the Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals and currently an analyst for CBS Sports and The Athletic said foul territory. “There were several front offices that believed there was a pre-packaged deal between the Dodgers and Roki Sasaki before this process began.”

It turned out that Major League Baseball had investigated the situation before the trial even began.

According to a league official, before approving Sasaki’s posting, MLB conducted an investigation to “ensure that the protocol agreement was followed.” Another person familiar with the situation, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the league interviewed “numerous parties” as part of its investigation but found no evidence to substantiate the rumors.

Sasaki’s agent Joel Wolfe has also repeatedly disputed the notion of a predetermined agreement between his client and the Dodgers (or any other club). At the winter meetings in December, Wolfe said Sasaki’s decision to sign in the 2025 international period (which only began on Wednesday) was made to ensure fairness across the league.

“There were some accusations, allegations, all of which were false, citing prearranged deals and things like that,” Wolfe said at the time. “However, MLB rightly wanted to ensure there was a fair and level playing field for everyone. Therefore, they conducted their due diligence and interviewed numerous parties in advance to ensure this was the case. And they wanted to make sure that Roki most likely – even though he would have the opportunity to commit in 24 – gives himself the best opportunity to get the best deal.”

The attention surrounding Sasaki’s posting dates back to last offseason, when some people in the sport expected Sasaki to make the jump to MLB for the 2024 season.

However, this did not happen, and Sasaki instead remained in Japan for his fourth and final season with the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Nippon Professional Baseball League. But even then, the Dodgers’ looming interest (and considerable attention from scouts) in the rising star was clear, as The Times reported in November 2023. And soon the dominant narrative in the industry was that the Dodgers would be Sasaki’s most likely MLB landing spot whenever he eventually crossed the Pacific.

Read more: Hernández: By joining the Dodgers, Roki Sasaki emphasizes development rather than being a team’s top star

Towards the end of last season, the distrust of opposing teams increased. At the end of October, the Dodgers had more money left in their 2024 international bonus pool — which is typically used to sign young talent from Latin America — than any other team. According to the Associated Press, they had saved about $2.5 million by this point in the year, but only three other clubs had even $1 million left.

To some, it gave the impression that the Dodgers were preparing for a possible deployment of Sasaki. Since international amateurs like Sasaki can only be signed by teams through their bonus pool allotment, it appeared the Dodgers would have a financial advantage over the rest of the league in signing him if he were to sign him during the 2024 signing period.

Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was asked about the team’s remaining bonus pool for 2024 in a press conference before the World Series, but declined to answer the question, stating that his attention was focused on the upcoming game of the teams with the New York Yankees.

“That’s not important right now,” Friedman replied angrily.

Ultimately, the Dodgers’ 2024 pool money wasn’t a factor in Sasaki’s free agency anyway.

Read more: The Dodgers sign Japanese star Roki Sasaki, making it another free agency win for LA

After Chiba Lotte decided to sign Sasaki in November, the pitcher and his representatives opted to let him wait until the 2025 international signing period to select a team – to ensure all 30 clubs had their full allotment of bonus money that they can use to track him.

Ultimately, this was a disadvantage for the Dodgers. Due to luxury tax-related penalties, they had the smallest available bonus pool with which to sign international players in the 2025 class, tied with the Giants at an MLB-low $5.1 million. Other teams had up to $7.5 million in their bonus pools. Sasaki’s two other eventual finalists, the San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays, each had $6.3 million.

Still, the Dodgers were considered favorites all along — for more mundane reasons typical of other free agencies.

Money didn’t seem to be Sasaki’s main motivation, considering that he could have waited two years to come to the MLB and sign as an unrestricted free agent (like Yoshinobu Yamamoto did when he secured a 12-year, $325 contract). secured millions of US dollars). Dodgers last offseason).

But the Dodgers — who finally expanded their bonus pool through two trades on Friday — appeared to have ticked off plenty of other potentially desirable criteria for Sasaki.

They were coming off the 2024 World Series championship and were already considered favorites to repeat in 2025. They had a reputation for helping pitchers reach their full potential, even if there were well-documented issues with pitching injuries last year . And they had two of Sasaki’s former teammates on Team Japan in Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, both of whom likely helped with the club’s recruiting efforts.

Read more: Shaikin: Roki Sasaki is a Dodger. Here’s why it’s a great day for baseball

Sasaki went through an extensive recruiting process. According to Wolfe, executive vice president of Wasserman Media Group, 20 teams submitted an initial pitch to Sasaki in December. The pitcher then held an opening round of in-person meetings with a handful of clubs — reportedly including the Yankees, New York Mets, San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs and others — before the holidays at Wasserman’s offices in Southern California.

After returning to Japan for several weeks around the New Year, Sasaki visited each of his three finalists, the Blue Jays, Padres and Dodgers, in the weeks leading up to his decision.

At various points in recent days, there have been reports that the Padres and Blue Jays were confident they could land Sasaki. The Blue Jays added their own additional bonus pool money in a trade hours before Sasaki’s decision Friday morning.

But the fit between the Dodgers and their latest Japanese addition remained too obvious, too strong. And as far as league officials are concerned after their investigation into the situation, it appears that Sasaki is in Los Angeles for a reason: It’s where he ultimately wanted to be.

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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

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