The Los Angeles Dodgers are among the three finalists for 23-year-old Japanese pitching sensation Roki Sasaki, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
The San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays are the other two finalists.
After a day that saw five teams officially eliminated from contention, we are down to the final three — and to no surprise, the Dodgers and Padres are still standing.
The Dodgers and Padres have long been considered the favorites for Sasaki for a variety of reasons, whether it be the pitching development, Japanese teammates, location, winning culture, and more.
While Sasaki’s agent Joel Wolfe wanted to make it clear that it was a level playing field for all 30 teams, it was hard to imagine many teams having a better shot at landing Sasaki than the Dodgers and Padres.
Now, those teams are among the three finalists, with the surprise Blue Jays also making the final three. Both the Blue Jays and Padres had second meetings with Sasaki over the last week. It’s currently unknown if the Dodgers also had a second meeting with the Japanese superstar.
The Dodgers have made it known that Sasaki was a “major priority” for them, as president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said at the Winter Meetings.
“He is someone that, obviously, is a major priority for us,” Friedman said. “We are going to do whatever we can and know that there are a lot of other teams that are going to do the exact same thing. … We’re gonna put our best foot forward about what we feel like we can provide short-term, long-term, with our pitching group, veteran players, and do everything we can to put our best foot forward.”
The Dodgers have clearly done enough to maintain their status as a favorite. However, it remains to be seen if they were passed by either the Padres or Blue Jays.
Sasaki is expected to sign sometime after Wednesday, when the next international signing period opens. He must sign before Jan. 23, when his 45-day posting window expires.
Sasaki has a career 2.10 ERA across four seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball. He’s coming to Major League Baseball to not just be great, but to be one of the best pitchers in the world.
“He has talked about his desire to be the best pitcher in the world,” Friedman said at the Winter Meetings, “and we believe he’s capable of being the best pitcher in the world.”
Will that be with the Dodgers? That question will be answered in the next 10 days.