CHICAGO — That moaning and groaning you heard from coast to coast Friday night was from every baseball franchise and fanbase outside Los Angeles, hearing the news they dreaded, and long feared.
Rōki Sasaki, the most talented young pitcher on the planet, is going to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers, the defending World Series champions, have been the favorites for the past 12 months for Sasaki’s services, with whispers so prevalent that a deal was already struck that Major League Baseball officials did a thorough investigation.
MLB found no wrongdoing. The Dodgers played by the rules.
Many thought the Dodgers were already the team to beat in 2025. Who can blame them if they start taking orders for postseason tickets this weekend?
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My God, if the Dodgers can win a World Series with just three healthy starters, as they proved last year, how in the world is anyone going to stop them with seven starting pitchers?
They just may have the deepest and most-talented rotation in history … at least since the glory days in Atlanta when Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz all pitched for the team.
This is a star-studded Dodgers rotation that features Blake Snell, Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Sasaski, Clayton Kershaw (who plans to return), Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Landon Knack, Bobby Miller … and on and on.
If it wasn’t painful enough to watch the Dodgers acquire Sasaki, all it cost was a mere $6.5 million in international bonus pool money.
It’s like a billionaire buying a Beverly Hills mansion for a few hundred bucks.
It’s a steal.
Sasaki, in making the announcement, called it “a very difficult decision, but I will do my best to make it the right decision when I look back after my baseball career.’’
The Dodgers clearly now are Japan’s team. They will open the season there, against the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo, in March.
No wonder that when Sasaski posted his decision on his Instagram account, with the news spreading quickly at the Chicago Cubs convention, one executive winced, and Cubs fans soon started heading for the lobby bar.
Let’s be honest: 29 teams now may be playing for the silver medal, trying to beat a team with this rotation.
Sure, it’s not as if the Dodgers still don’t have a few concerns about the rotation. Ohtani, coming off elbow surgery, won’t start the season on time. Gonsolin and May are coming off injuries. Still, with Sasaki having to acclimate himself to the major leagues, the Dodgers can utilize a six- or even seven-man rotation, taking their time developing Sasaki, and making sure he’s fresh for the World Series.
While no one questions Sasaki’s greatness, scouts and executives who watched him pitch last year in Japan hardly expect him to walk in and win a Cy Young Award. Now, if you’re talking a year or two from now, yes, it’s certainly possible with his 102-mph fastball, devastating split-finger and slider.
“Rōki is by no means a finished product,” Joel Wolfe, his agent, said in December. “He knows it and the team knows it.”
This year, he’ll probably be the Dodgers’ No. 4 starter, who just may be the greatest in recent baseball history.
If you’re the Arizona Diamondbacks, who just had a press conference to introduce ace Corbin Burnes, who signed a six-year, $210 million contract, you’re crushed at the outcome.
The San Diego Padres, who were confident last week they would sign Sasaki, now are scrambling, having to find two starters on a limited budget.
And the Toronto Blue Jays, who were the third finalist for Sasaki’s services and even made a wild trade to assume outfielder Myles Straw’s $15.5 million contract from Cleveland just to gain an extra $2 million in international pool money, are absolutely devastated.
They thought they had Ohtani a year ago, only to be snubbed for the Dodgers.
They thought they had a great shot of signing Juan Soto last month, only for him to go to the New York Mets.
And now this…
If you see a Blue Jays fan this weekend, please give them a hug.
Then again, if you see a diehard fan of any of the 29 other teams, buy them a drink.
They already started at the Cubs convention.
The mighty Dodgers, that Evil Empire on the West Coast, have struck again.
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