You might have noticed that a couple weeks back that the calendar has flipped to January. Suddenly, as of yesterday, we’re less than a month from pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training. That means we’re getting fewer hours and fewer days for the remaining free agents to sort out new contracts for the upcoming MLB season.
One person where that concept doesn’t quite apply is Roki Sasaki. In fact, Sasaki can not officially sign until his window opens on January 15. It then runs until January 23. Sasaki is one of the gems of this free agent class, just 23-years-old with ace-level stuff. He has long been coveted by MLB teams and soon he will call a North American city home.
Where will that be? Well, we learned a lot about that on Monday. Let’s dig into the reports.
Roki Sasaki met with the Blue Jays in Toronto
The term “mystery team” has been floated a bunch in the Sasaki sweepstakes and it seems like we just found out which franchise that was actually referring to.
Toronto’s involvement makes a lot of sense, even if the team has had a less than stellar track record of signing top-tier free agents in the past two off-seasons. The Blue Jays were in on Shohei Ohtani last year. This winter, the team has tried and failed to ink Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes and Teoscar Hernandez. With just a single year remaining on the contracts for both Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, Toronto is being aggressive about trying to spend their way back into contention. Sasaki would immediately vault to the No. 1 spot in the Blue Jays’ rotation and give fans a reason for optimism in 2025.
Still, while an in-person visit can not be overlooked, it feels like Toronto remains behind the Dodgers and the Padres as it pertains to Sasaki’s likely landing spot.
Yankees, Mets, Rangers and Giants out of the running
Though the Blue Jays seem like a pipe dream, Toronto can at least claim better odds of signing Roki Sasaki than a few other notable markets.
It’s a tough blow for each franchise, yet all most can at least fall back on already successful off-season moves — particularly in the pitching department.
The Yankees shored up their rotation and the their bullpen by bringing in the likes of Max Fried and Devin Williams. The Giants spent big money on Willy Adames and took a flyer on the ageless Justin Verlander (who, to be fair, is starting to kind of look like a 42-year-old man). While the Mets brought back Sean Manaea and added Clay Holmes. They also signed Juan Soto. You may have heard about that one.
As of writing, it appears that the Dodgers, Padres and Blue Jays are teams still in the running for Sasaki’s services. We’ll find out more as the week progresses.
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All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests.
