Roki Sasaki’s free agency will always be remembered as if no team other than the Los Angeles Dodgers had a chance, but on Friday there was a small window where it seemed like the Toronto Blue Jays were on to something.
At 11:30 a.m. ET, the Blue Jays announced that they had acquired Cleveland Guardians outfielder Myles Straw, cash and international bonus pool money in exchange for a player to be named later or cash.
At first glance, the trade made little sense. Stroh is one of the players who generally have a negative value. The 30-year-old is a brilliant fielder, but an anemic bat kept him from becoming a starter in the MLB, so he spent all of last season in Triple-A, where he posted a .651 OPS. And because of an ill-advised five-year deal the Guardians gave him, he’s still owed $13.8 million, plus the money needed to buy out his club options for 2026 and 2027.
The Guardians sent at least $3.75 million to offset Straw’s deal, but that still meant the Blue Jays were still willing to pay $11 million for a player with no bat and only gloves, one Type of player they already had plenty of.
The only point might be to take advantage of the $2 million the Jays acquired. Namely, by sweetening the pot for Sasaki, who was required by international free agent rules to receive a bonus that was a fraction of his true value. The trade expanded the Jays’ international pool to approximately $8.3 million.
Outside of Sasaki’s camp (and perhaps in the Dodgers’ front office, if some people are to be believed), no one knew anything for sure, but one theory went like this:
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The Blue Jays made a trade that made no sense without Sasaki.
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Without a deal with Sasaki, the Blue Jays would not make such a trade.
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The Blue Jays need to prepare for a deal with Sasaki.
This would have made sense if the Blue Jays had operated like a normal team. Instead, Sasaki announced hours later that he was signing with the Dodgers, leaving a huge question about what exactly Toronto was doing.
On Saturday, The Athletic answered that question by reporting that the Blue Jays completed the trade without Sasaki’s approval. Instead, “they seemed determined to prove to Sasaki that they were willing to do whatever it took to sign him” after sensing the Dodgers were the favorites.
The competition’s executives didn’t particularly appreciate the way the team did it:
It was a dubious strategy, especially without a deal, prompting a rival executive to say, “My phone has been buzzing with ‘Wtf Jays’ all day.” An executive still involved in the process noted the addition of the Blue Jays take note They appreciated the pool of money they could offer Sasaki, but took comfort in the fact that Wolfe had given similar instructions to the rest of the clubs. But the Blue Jays’ motivation was clear: They hoped their push for Sasaki would end differently than their failed runs against Ohtani and Juan Soto, which only angered the fan base and further portrayed the franchise as a perennial runner-up.
The Shohei Ohtani jet incident really left its mark on this franchise.
The Athletic reports that the other two finalists, the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, both had their own contracts in place but, crucially, did so not Pull the trigger until they are told Sasaki is signing with them. San Diego was reportedly willing to make a trade to increase its bonus pool to a maximum of 160%, while the Dodgers ultimately struck deals with the Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds at the expense of acquiring a few additional million dollars to increase their bonus pool increase from smaller prospects.
If you value each of the prospects the Dodgers sent away — outfielders Dylan Campbell and Arnaldo Lantigua — as worth less than $11 million, the Dodgers somehow ended up making only the second- and third-most expensive trades to accommodate Sasaki. Because — and this really needs to be repeated to understand — the Blue Jays traded away an $11 million backup player just to convince one guy they wanted him. It’s the baseball equivalent of getting a tattoo to convince someone you’re serious about dating them.
It’s one thing to miss Ohtani or Juan Soto. It’s another thing to pay for the privilege, which is what Toronto did this time. We shouldn’t rule out Straw having a breakout year in the Toronto outfield in 2025, but there’s no denying that misfortune landed him in Toronto.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers reportedly offered a full presser at their second, more extensive meeting with Sasaki, with appearances from Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Will Smith, Tommy Edman and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman , general manager Brandon Games and minority owner Magic Johnson, who gave Sasaki, apparently a huge basketball fan, a signed jersey.
The group reportedly went to partner Peter Guber’s home in Bel Air, where a private chef served sushi as the conversation continued. Shortly before Sasaki announced his decision, Ohtani contacted team management via text message and said: “We have him.”
An overarching narrative surrounding the entire Sasaki situation was how different the Dodgers are from every other team, and that apparently extended to the fundamentals of the process.