REPORTS: Roki Sasaki and Dodgers set meeting date with star players ‘in attendance’
MLB industry rumors say the Dodgers have been informed that they are Roki Sasaki's first choice to sign with.
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Roki Sasaki (Image via Baseball America)
As per the latest reports, Roki Sasaki and the Los Angeles Dodgers have set their meeting date with star players “in attendance”. Further details have not been revealed yet.
Several sources even claimed that the Dodgers have been informed that they are Sasaki’s first choice in free agency. He has to sign with a team by January 23 and the top teams competing for the spot are – the Dodgers, the San Diego Padres, and the Toronto Blue Jays.
If Sasaki ends up joining the LA Dodgers they’ll undoubtedly be one of the hardest teams to beat in the 2025 race. With a lineup like – Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Teoscar Hernandez, Blake Snell, Will Smith, and others they already are a force to reckon with.
Roki Sasaki has been linked with the Dodgers for quite a while. Following their already built-up resume with Japanese players, many prefer with them. Furthermore, Ohtani and Yamamoto were his teammates during the World Baseball Classic.
The Dodgers are meeting with Roki Sasaki today and star players will be 'in attendance,' per @FabianArdaya pic.twitter.com/8KMscAeAn9
— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) January 14, 2025
While speaking of known faces, the Padres also have Yu Darvish who talked about Sasaki’s influence and effect if he joins them. He is also one of Sasaki’s idols and may influence his decision to sign with a team. So far these two teams hold the highest probability rate for the Japanese rookie to choose for his MLB debut.
NY teams out of Roki Sasaki free agency race
Earlier Roki Sasaki mentioned his Top 3 favorite teams in MLB and outed the rest 17 teams from the race. While every team was interested in getting his services there were about 20 who actively participated. Even among them a couple of top teams always remained in the spotlight.
Unfortunately, it seems both the New York teams have been outed from the race. The NY Yankees have been told that Sasaki is not interested in signing with them. They were confident in their speech to Sasaki and even talked about possible additions and their effects.
Yankees have been told that Roki Sasaki will not be signing with them, per @JackCurryYES pic.twitter.com/iU0ioOizrG
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) January 13, 2025
However, that doesn’t seem to be on the horizon for now. Unlike the Yankees who were actively noted as one of the teams to look for, the NY Mets were also in the race. Now with both NY teams out of the “Roki Sasaki Festival”, the Mets lineup for 2025 includes – Sean Manaea, Kodai Senga, Clay Holmes, David Peterson, Frankie Montas, and Griffin Canning.
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Kaushani Chatterjee
(2140 Articles Published)