Sasaki: Joining Dodgers ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ chance
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Alden Gonzalez
LOS ANGELES — Roki Sasaki donned a No. 11 Los Angeles Dodgers jersey atop a makeshift stage Wednesday afternoon and called it the culmination of “an incredibly difficult decision.”
When Sasaki was posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines in the middle of December — a development evaluators have spent years anticipating — 20 major league teams formally expressed interest. Eight of those clubs were granted initial meetings at the L.A. offices of Sasaki’s agency, Wasserman. Three were then named finalists in the middle of January, prompting official visits to their ballparks. And in the end, to practically nobody’s surprise, it was the Dodgers who won out.
The Dodgers had long been deemed favorites for Sasaki, so much so that many viewed the pairing as an inevitability. In the wake of that actually materializing, scouts and executives throughout the industry have privately complained about being dragged through what they perceived as a process that already had a predetermined outcome. Some have also expressed concern that the homework assignment Sasaki gave to each of the eight teams he initially met with, asking them to present their ideas for how to recapture the life of his fastball, saw them provide proprietary information without ultimately having a reasonable chance to get him.
Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, admitted he has heard some of those complaints over the past handful of days.
“I’ve tried to be an open book and as transparent as possible with all the teams in the league,” said Wolfe, who has vehemently denied claims of a predetermined deal from the onset. “I answer every phone call, I answer every question. This goes back to before the process even started. Every team I think would tell you that I told each one of them where they stood throughout the entire process, why they got a meeting, why they didn’t get a meeting, why other teams got a meeting. I tried to do my best to do that. He was only going to be able to pick one.”
Sasaki, 23, is considered one of the world’s most promising pitching prospects, with a triple-digit fastball and an otherworldly splitter. Through four seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball, Sasaki posted a 2.10 ERA, a 0.89 WHIP and 505 strikeouts against just 88 walks in 394⅔ innings. But he has openly acknowledged to teams that he is not yet fully formed, and many of those who followed him in Japan believed his priority would be to go to the team that had the best chance of making him better.
Few would argue that the Dodgers don’t fit that description. Their vast resources, recent run of success and sizeable footprint in Japan made them an obvious fit for Sasaki, but it was their track record of pitching development that landed them one of the sport’s most intriguing prospects.
“His goal is to be the first Japanese pitcher to win a Cy Young, and he definitely possesses the ability to do that,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “We’re excited to partner with him.”
Sasaki will join a star-studded rotation headlined by Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, decorated Japanese countrymen who signed free agent deals totaling more than $1 billion in December 2023. The Dodgers went on to win the ensuing World Series, then doubled down on one of the sport’s richest, most talented rosters.
Over the past three months, they’ve signed starting pitcher Blake Snell for $182 million, extended utility man Tommy Edman for $74 million, given reliever Tanner Scott $72 million, brought back corner outfielder Teoscar Hernandez for $66 million, added another corner outfielder in Michael Conforto ($17 million) and struck a surprising deal with Korean middle infielder Hyeseong Kim ($12.5 million). At some point, they’ll finalize a contract with another back-end reliever in Kirby Yates and will bring back longtime ace Clayton Kershaw.
But Sasaki, who has drawn the attention of Dodgers scouts since he was throwing 100-mph fastballs in high school, was the ultimate prize.
“As I transition to the major leagues, I am deeply honored so many teams reached out to me, especially considering I haven’t achieved much in Japan,” Sasaki, speaking through an interpreter, said in front of hundreds of media members. “It makes me feel more focused than ever. I am truly grateful to all the team officials who took the time to meet with me during this process.
“I spent the past month both embracing and reflecting on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to choose a place purely based on where I can grow as a player the most,” Sasaki continued. “Every organization helped me in its own way, and it was an incredibly difficult decision to choose just one. I am fully aware that there are many different opinions out there. But now that I have decided to come here, I want to move forward with the belief that the decision I made is the best one, trust in those who believed in my potential and (have) conviction in the goals that I set for myself.”
Major League Baseball heard complaints from rival teams about a prearranged deal between Sasaki’s side and the Dodgers before he was posted, prompting an investigation “to ensure the protocol agreement had been followed,” a league official said in a statement. MLB found no evidence, prompting Sasaki to be included as part of the 2025 international signing class.
Because he is under 25 years old and spent less than six seasons in NPB, Sasaki was made available as an international amateur, his earnings restricted to teams’ signing-bonus pools. The Dodgers gave him $6.5 million, which constitutes the vast majority of their allotment, and will control Sasaki’s rights until he attains the six years of service time required for free agency. Sasaki said his immediate goal is to “beat the competition and make sure I do get a major league contract.”
Sasaki combined to throw barely more than 200 innings over the past two years and is expected to be handled carefully in the United States. The Dodgers won’t set a strict innings limit for him in 2025 but will deploy a traditional six-man rotation, which also makes sense with Ohtani returning as a two-way player. The Dodgers’ initial meeting with Sasaki saw them tout the way their training staff, pitching coaches and performance-science group work in harmony. In their second, they brought out Ohtani, Edman, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Sasaki’s catcher, Will Smith, in hopes of wooing him. And in the end, it was Ohtani who broke the news to the Dodgers’ front-office members, letting them know they landed Sasaki in a text before his agent could get around to calling.
Friedman described it as “pure excitement.” Many others, however, rolled their eyes at what they felt was inevitable. Wolfe denied that, saying, “I don’t believe [the Dodgers] was always the destination.” But then he went on to describe how prevalent the Dodgers are in Japan. Their games are on every morning and rebroadcast later at night. Dodgers-specific shops outfit stadiums throughout the country.
“They’re everywhere,” Wolfe said. “And I think that all the players and fans see the Dodgers every day, so it’s always in their mind because of Ohtani and Yamamoto. But when (Sasaki) came over here, he came with a very open mind.”
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Greg Wyshynski
Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh stated the obvious: The 6-2 humbling they suffered against the arch-rival Florida Panthers on Tuesday night was not how they wanted to begin the latest Battle of Florida.
“It’s definitely a salty feeling in here. We didn’t have a great start to this series like we talked about,” the veteran said. “But we know we can be better. We’ve got another level and we’ll find a way to get to that.”
The Panthers took a 1-0 series lead by scoring six times on 16 shots against Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. After Sam Bennett and Jake Guentzel traded goals in the first period, the Panthers scored four straight times — including goals by Nate Schmidt and Matthew Tkachuk that were 14 seconds apart in the second period. Schmidt’s goal was unsuccessfully challenged for goalie interference by the Lightning, earning a delay of game penalty. Tkachuk scored on the ensuing power play to make it 4-1.
“Yeah, you’ve got to stop that bleeding,” defenseman Victor Hedman said. “We give up that third one. The challenge that didn’t go our way and we give up one right away. That’s tough, but we got to make sure it stops there and not give up the fifth one as well.”
Tkachuk, returning to the Florida lineup for the first time after being injured in February’s 4 Nations Face-Off, scored his second of the game on the power play at 9:44 of the second period to make it 5-1 for the Panthers, en route to the 6-2 rout.
“You see him being able to step into a game and be impactful,” Schmidt said of Tkachuk. “That’s who he is. He’s a playoff player.”
Lightning coach Jon Cooper, who has won two of the three Battle of Florida playoff series against the Panthers, appreciated his team’s effort despite the result.
“I love this team. They try. They’re always trying, and they did that again tonight. Sometimes the results aren’t there. Most nights they are,” he said. “We can sit here and dissect this game all we want. The bottom line is we lost. Whether you lose 6-2 or you lose 1-0 in overtime, we lost the game. Turn the page and move on. Let’s sit here in 48 hours or whatever it is and dissect that one. This one’s over.”
The Panthers are the reigning Stanley Cup champion. Cooper noted that a number of his players were seeing their first playoff action in Game 1.
“We had a bunch of guys tonight playing their first playoff games, and I thought guys handled it fairly well. But in the end we gave up six goals,” he said. “The series isn’t won in one game, so there’s a positive.”
That said, it took just one game for the Panthers to flex on the Lightning defense and special teams, going 3-for-3 on the power play. One huge factor in that domination was an injury to Lightning center Anthony Cirelli, their best defensive forward and a key to their penalty kill. He left the game after taking two shifts in the second period. There was no update on his status after the game.
Game 2 is Thursday night at Amalie Arena in Tampa.
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Jesse Rogers
CHICAGO — Catcher Miguel Amaya was confident he’d be jogging around the bases when he blasted a two-out, ninth-inning baseball high into the Wrigley Field sky with his Chicago Cubs trailing 10-9 to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night.
He was right — but just barely.
Amaya’s 388-foot shot landed in the center field basket, sending the home crowd into a frenzy as Dodgers closer Tanner Scott blew the save. And one inning later, the Cubs won the game 11-10 on an Ian Happ run-scoring single off Noah Davis, capping yet another wild affair at Wrigley.
According to Statcast, Amaya’s blast would have been a home run in exactly one park in the majors.
“As a baseball player, its something you dream of,” Amaya said. “As soon as I hit, I felt it was out but then I saw the center fielder getting into position to catch it. Then it was, ‘Oh my god, I have to run,’ but it was enough to get out.
“I love those basket balls.”
It was the second time in five days that both teams playing at Wrigley scored 10 or more runs; on Friday, the Cubs beat the Diamondbacks 13-11 thanks to a six-run eighth inning that was preceded by a 10-run frame by Arizona.
On Tuesday, the Cubs led 5-3 after the first inning, but the Dodgers took a 10-7 lead thanks to a five-run seventh aided by an error from third baseman Gage Workman. As has been the case all month, the Cubs kept fighting back. Right fielder Kyle Tucker brought them within one with an eighth-inning home run before Amaya tied it in the ninth.
“They’ve done some amazing things and some resilient things, most importantly,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said of the team’s play on its homestand. “You win games like that early in the season and it’s a great carry forward for the rest of the season.”
The Cubs improved to 15-10 thanks to a high-powered offense that leads the league in scoring at just over six runs per game. They’ve tallied 10 or more runs in seven games already, their most through 25 games of a season since 1895, according to ESPN Research. No other team this season has done it more than 3 times.
Counsell credited his bullpen in shutting down the Dodgers in the final few innings.
The Cubs also did well facing Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani. He went 0 for 4, lowering his batting average against them this year to .167. Against all other teams, he’s hitting .302.
He also went 0-for-3 against Shota Imanaga and is now 0-for-10 against the Cubs starter.
“The next 10 at-bats he might get 10 hits,” Imanaga said. “It’s been a small miracle that it’s happened 10 times in a row.”
The Cubs keep on performing miracles at the plate both in the colder conditions this month and in the few games where the weather has been favorable for hitters. That included Tuesday, when it was 71 degrees with the wind blowing out at first pitch. It led to six home runs, none bigger than Amaya’s.
“Basket hurt us a couple times last year,” Counsell said with a smirk. “It was helpful tonight.”
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