Roki Sasaki announced late last week that he decided to sign a contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The right-hander chose the team out of a group of finalists that also included the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres and an overall group of more than 20 teams interested.
After being posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines in December, Sasaki met with the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers.
Sasaki narrowed the field down before taking additional meetings with the Dodgers and Padres. The Blue Jays also secured a visit as part of a late push to sign the 23-year-old.
According to Fabian Ardaya, Dennis Lin, Patrick Mooney, Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic, the Dodgers’ meeting with Sasaki included Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts, among others:
Former MVPs Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts were in attendance, as were Sasaki’s future backstop, Will Smith, and the freshly-extended Tommy Edman. But the biggest star of them all was Ohtani, a teammate at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, who one official said was “driving the bus” in the effort to land Sasaki.
With Dodger Stadium currently undergoing renovations, the Dodgers’ meeting with Sasaki took place at part-owner Peter Guber’s home in Bel Air:
The meeting with Sasaki did not take place at Dodger Stadium, which is in the midst of multimillion-dollar renovations to each of the clubhouses and overall facilities. Instead, the Dodgers invited Sasaki and his camp to part-owner Peter Guber’s home in Bel Air. Aiming for a more relaxed atmosphere, a sushi chef was hired to come to Guber’s house and prepare dinner. The chef worked as Sasaki sat on the couch and chatted with his future teammates, who each vouched for what life was like with the reigning World Series champions.
At one point in the night, the Dodgers played a video featuring personalized messages from a litany of players — including some new to the franchise — speaking to the franchise’s treatment of their families and their player development staff along with how eager they were to be teammates with Sasaki. The goal of the video, according to one official, was to emphasize how welcome Sasaki would be in the star-studded clubhouse.
The Dodgers’ pitch to Sasaki was successful and he is now set to join a star-studded starting rotation that will include Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and eventually Ohtani, among others.
Yamamoto, a teammate of Sasaki during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, is said to have played a pivotal role in his decision to join the Dodgers by detailing how the team can help him adjust to the Majors.
Roki Sasaki’s contract
Sasaki reportedly received a $6.5 million signing bonus from the Dodgers, which was made possible after the team traded Dylan Campbell to the Philadelphia Phillies for international pool bonus money.
If not for the deal, L.A. would have been limited to offering $5,146,200 to Sasaki.
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