In the wake of Roki Sasaki’s announcement Friday that he was signing with the Dodgers, it didn’t take long for grumbles about his free agency to emerge.
Over the last year, there had been speculation around the sport that the Dodgers had a possible handshake agreement in place with Sasaki, before the 23-year-old phenom was even posted by his Japanese club — the process by which players from foreign professional leagues are made available for big league teams to sign.
Leading up to this offseason, there were rumors that the Dodgers possessed some sort of advantage in the star pitcher’s sweepstakes — a unique situation in its own right since Sasaki is under the age of 25, and was therefore limited to signing a minor-league contract as an international amateur with a modest signing bonus.
“I heard some rumblings about a done deal with the Dodgers — you know, having a plan for him,” former Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel, a teammate of Sasaki’s in Japan last season, told the New York Post in November.
It then all came to a head Friday, when just hours after Sasaki agreed to his $6.5 million deal with the Dodgers, one former general manager went public with more viral claims.
“I think you’re going to find there’s going to be multiple teams that are going to ask the commissioner’s office to investigate this particular signing,” Jim Bowden, formerly the GM of the Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals and currently an analyst with CBS Sports and The Athletic, told Foul Territory. “There were several front offices that believed there was a pre-cut deal between the Dodgers and Roki Sasaki before this process started.”
Turns out, Major League Baseball had looked into the situation before the process even began.
According to a league official, MLB conducted an investigation prior to authorizing Sasaki’s posting to “ensure the protocol agreement had been followed.” Another person with knowledge of the situation, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said the league interviewed “numerous parties” in its probe, but found no evidence to substantiate the rumors.
Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, has also repeatedly denied the notion of any predetermined agreement between his client and the Dodgers (or any other club). At the winter meetings in December, Wolfe said Sasaki’s decision to sign in the 2025 international period (which didn’t open until Wednesday) was made to ensure fairness across the league.
“There were some accusations, allegations, all of them false, made about pre-determined deals, things like that,” Wolfe said then. “However, MLB rightly wanted to make sure this was going to be a fair and level playing field for everyone. So they did their due diligence and interviewed numerous parties ahead of time to make sure that was the case. And they wanted to make sure that Roki would most likely — while he would have the opportunity to sign in ‘24 — give himself the best opportunity to get the best deal.”
The attention surrounding Sasaki’s posting dates to last offseason, when there was a belief from some people in the sport that Sasaki could make the jump to MLB for the 2024 campaign.
That didn’t end up happening, with Sasaki instead staying in Japan for what became a fourth and final season with the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Nippon Professional Baseball league. But even then, the Dodgers’ looming interest (and considerable scouting attention) in the budding ace was clear, as The Times reported in November 2023. And before long, the prevailing industry narrative was that the Dodgers would be Sasaki’s most likely MLB landing place, whenever he eventually made his move across the Pacific.
Opposing teams’ suspicions were heightened near the end of last season. As of late October, the Dodgers had more money remaining in their 2024 international bonus pool — which is typically used to sign teenage prospects from Latin America — than any other team. They had preserved roughly $2.5 million to that point of the year, but only three other clubs even had $1 million remaining, according to the Associated Press.
To some, it created the appearance that the Dodgers were preparing for a potential Sasaki posting. Because international amateurs like Sasaki can only be signed by teams through their bonus pool allotments, it seemed like the Dodgers might have a financial advantage in signing him over the rest of the league, were he to ink a deal in the 2024 signing period.
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was asked about the team’s remaining 2024 bonus pool in a news conference ahead of the World Series, but declined to answer the question, declaring his attention was on the team’s upcoming matchup with the New York Yankees.
“This is not important for right now,” Friedman angrily responded.
Ultimately, the Dodgers’ 2024 pool money wasn’t a factor in Sasaki’s free agency anyway.
After Chiba Lotte decided to post Sasaki in November, the pitcher and his representatives elected to have him wait until the 2025 international signing period to pick a team — ensuring that all 30 clubs would have their full allotment of bonus pool money to pursue him with.
For the Dodgers, that wound up being somewhat of a disadvantage. Because of luxury-tax-related penalties, they had the smallest available bonus pool with which to sign international players in the 2025 class, tied with the Giants at an MLB-low $5.1 million. Other teams had up to $7.5 million in their bonus pools. Sasaki’s two other eventual finalists, the San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays, each had $6.3 million.
Despite that, the Dodgers were still viewed as favorites all along — for more mundane reasons typical of other free agencies.
Money didn’t appear to be Sasaki’s primary motivation, given the fact he could have waited to come to MLB in two years and signed as an unrestricted free agent (like Yoshinobu Yamamoto did in securing a 12-year, $325 million contract from the Dodgers last offseason).
But the Dodgers — who did eventually add to their bonus pool via a pair of trades Friday — seemingly checked many other potentially desirable boxes for Sasaki.
They were coming off a 2024 World Series championship, and already seen as favorites to repeat in 2025. They had a reputation for helping pitchers reach their full potential, even in spite of last year’s well-documented issues with pitching injuries. And they had two former Team Japan teammates of Sasaki’s in Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, each of whom likely aided in the club’s recruiting effort.
Sasaki did go through an extensive recruiting process. According to Wolfe, the executive vice president of Wasserman Media Group, 20 teams submitted an initial pitch to Sasaki in December. After that, the pitcher held an opening round of in-person meetings with a handful of clubs — reportedly including the New York Yankees, New York Mets, San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs and others — at Wasserman’s Southern California offices before the holidays.
After returning to Japan for several weeks around the New Year, Sasaki then made visits to each of his three finalists, the Blue Jays, Padres and Dodgers, in the weeks leading up to his decision.
At various times in recent days, there were reports that both the Padres and Blue Jays felt confident in their chances of landing Sasaki. The Blue Jays added their own additional bonus pool money in a trade hours before Sasaki’s decision Friday morning.
But the fit between the Dodgers and their latest Japanese signing remained too obvious, too strong. And, as far as league officials are concerned following their investigation into the situation, it appears Sasaki is in Los Angeles for one reason: It’s the place he ultimately wanted to be.
