Roki Sasaki Has Signed With Los Angeles Dodgers in Quest to Be Greatest Pitcher Ever

Come on… was this really a surprise? Many baseball fandoms had pinged Roki as potentially suiting up in the blue. Nonetheless, Sasaki wants to be the greatest pitcher to play the game and he selected LA, the reigning champions, in order to help him get to such an elite level. On Friday afternoon, sources confirmed that Roki Sasaki had indeed signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers and is ready to help the franchise win another World Series.

Sasaki joins a lot of good company. He will be a part of a starting pitching rotation that includes Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani and Blake Snell. Snell has won not one, but two Cy Youngs in the National and American League. These are definitely guys Roki can learn from and get up to speed on the batters he will face on the mound.

Sasaki going to the Dodgers seemed imminent when early Friday morning a report came from veteran reporter Francys Romero that the San Diego Padres were officially out of the Roki sweepstakes. It had been presumed that SD and LA were the top choices to land Sasaki. Nevertheless, Romero revealed,

“Hearing from multiple sources that the Padres are out in Roki Sasaki. They will begin their international signings of Jhoan De La Cruz and Carlos Alvarez in the next few hours.”

With San Diego now out the picture, that left two “possible” teams. Los Angeles and Toronto Bluejays. However, less than twelve hours later, Romero would return to the sports news realm with the winning team. Regarding Roki becoming the newest member of the Dodger nation, Romero states,

“BREAKING: Japanese ace Roki Sasaki (23) is in agreement with the Los Angeles Dodgers, per sources.”

ESPN’s Jeff Passan backed up Francys’ Los Angeles reporting; with Passan mentioning,

“Japanese star Roki Sasaki signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he announced on Instagram. The 23-year-old right-hander with a sizzling fastball and deadly splitter joins Samurai Japan teammates Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto with the World Series champion Dodgers.”

Roki Sasaki Has Signed With Los Angeles Dodgers in Quest to Be Greatest Pitcher Ever

Sasaki needed to select his new team between Jan. 15, the start of this year’s international signing period, and Jan. 23, the expiration of his posting window. He’s now done that. So the time is here for him to work on his development. That was one of the 3 things Sasaki was after when signing with an organization. Roki required chances to win, good pitching development and opportunities for sponsorships.

Sasaki’s numbers were down a bit last year, his ERA rising to 2.35. His four-seam fastball also went from averaging roughly 98 mph to 96. He’s had some command issues and at one point, shoulder fatigue cropped up. So for some, there are concerns about how Sasaki will handle a major league workload. But with his ceiling, these are all issues that can be worked through.

With baseball just weeks away the Dodgers are stronger than ever. Winning once was not enough, and they have added more firepower this offseason. Of course, for other franchises and their fans… some think, is this fair or too much?

There are several teams with owners that NEED to spend more and should. Does a northern California team ring a bell? Our issue mainly is over media deals.

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