The Dodgers’ $350 million adversary expresses their opinions about Roki Sasaki clearly.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have made several additions that might frustrate other teams. But the signing of Japanese phenom starter Roki Sasaki has caught some extra attention.
Sasaki opted to join Major League Baseball in a leap from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball Organization and, due to the international signing rules for MLB, he was free to choose any interested club and could only sign for a relatively-small salary.
That made the sweepstakes to land Sasaki, who has the potential to throw three plus-power pitches in MLB, quite intense. The finalists included the Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays, and when Sasaki chose the Dodgers, some accused the team of organizing a prearranged deal with the player.
That would be a violation of official protocol, though Sasaki’s agent has denied those rumors.
Among the accusers who seem unswayed by that denial is San Diego Padres star Manny Machado, who has asserted that Sasaki had already decided on joining the Dodgers even as he visited the Padres.
“I think he had his mind set already on where he was going,” Machado said, according to The Athletic’s Dennis Lin. “That’s just my opinion.”
It’s possible that Machado’s accusation was motivated by a bit of bad blood between his team and the Dodgers. The two clubs met in a heated National League Division Series in 2024, which included some notable trash talk between players and fans. As Machado and the Padres assess their chances in the National League West Division, they would have certainly hoped Sasaki would join their rotation and help vanquish the Dodgers.
After signing an 11-year, $350 million contract with the Padres, Machado could be facing a final chance to beat them en route to a World Series championship in 2025. Amid a battle over ownership of the team, the Padres seem to be clearing payroll and might be engaging in a significant rebuild around younger and more controllable talent soon.
Despite any just cause for hard feelings from Machado, though, Dodgers fans are unlikely to take his comments lightly. Writing for Dodgers Way, Katrina Stebbins noted that Machado and the Padres might be better served focusing on their own team than on the Dodgers relentless acquisition of star talent.
“Manny Machado, a guy known for not mincing his words, unsurprisingly had a lot to say,” she wrote. “He admitted to being disappointed that the Padres hadn’t done more during the offseason but, when asked about Sasaki, seemed completely unwilling to acknowledge problems in the organization.”
