The World Collection champions carry on reloading.
Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki is signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the 23-year-old introduced Friday on Instagram. Whole particulars of the contract weren’t disclosed on the time of announcement.
“It was 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 ace posted on Instagram.
For weeks, the Dodgers have been reportedly favorites to land the Sasaki. The San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays have been the opposite two finalists to land his companies. Each the Yankees and Mets have been closely focused on Sasaki, however discovered days earlier than Friday’s announcement that the starter wouldn’t land in New York.
Sasaki now joins a championship roster that already consists of Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. As a consequence of Sasaki being beneath 25, groups have been restricted to giving him solely their worldwide bonus swimming pools, which ranged from about $5.1 million to $7.5 million.
Sasaki joins the Dodgers after recording a 2.10 ERA and 505 strikeouts in 394.2 innings over 4 Nippon Skilled Baseball seasons. The righty impressed baseball followers as a starter for Workforce Japan throughout its run to the 2023 World Baseball Traditional championship.
The staff, which additionally signed two-time Cy Younger award winner Blake Snell and star Tyler Glasnow this offseason, will profit from Sasaki’s 100-mph fastball and nasty splitter. The Dodgers’ projected beginning rotation now seems significantly better than the one deployed throughout its championship marketing campaign: Snell, Yamamoto, Glasnow, Tony Gonsolin Dustin Could and Sasaki.
Two-way celebrity Ohtani is on observe to return to the mound sooner or later subsequent season after not pitching in 2024 following a 2023 UCL surgical procedure.
Initially Printed: January 17, 2025 at 6:47 PM EST
