Former front office official suggests foul play in Dodgers’ signing of Roki Sasaki.
Just minutes after the Japanese ace announced on Instagram that he would be joining the Dodgers next season, former MLB general manager Jim Bowden said in a conversation on “Foul Territory” that he thought An investigation could take place regarding the deal.
“I think you’re going to find that there are going to be multiple teams that are going to ask the commissioner’s office to investigate this particular signing,” Bowden said on Foul Territory. “Several front offices believed that there was a pre-arranged agreement between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Roki Sasaki before this process began and before the window arrived where you are allowed to negotiate with the player. This was of course denied by his camp.
Sasaki narrowed his long list this week to three teams – Dodgers, Padres and Blue Jays – before finally signing with Los Angeles on Friday.
In November, Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe of Wasserman, publicly denied any claims of an unwritten agreement.
“While a group of executives who should know me better and do a lot of business with me are insulting my integrity by insinuating that I would be part of some sort of nefarious deal,” Wolfe told The Athletic, “in reality , that’s just bad sportsmanship.
When asked about the allegations in November, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said he did not believe in a private deal, but mentioned his office would look into the matter.
“But you know, we’ll see what happens there,” Manfred told The Athletic. “If there is reason to believe that there has been a violation of any of our rules, you can be assured that we will investigate thoroughly and attempt to get to the bottom of the matter.”
During his free agency, the talk around the Sasaki competition finally shifted away from Los Angeles, with rumors that the phenom wanted to sign with a small market team, Bowden explained.
“We were told that a small deal would probably make sense because of the problems he (Sasaki) has had with the media in Japan,” Bowden said. “We were told that endorsements played a big role. »
Bowden went on to say that almost every MLB front office who spoke to him thought Sasaki was “a done deal before the process started.”
Sasaki made his announcement Friday, with The Athletic reporting he received a $6.5 million signing bonus.
He will strengthen a team that already includes Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow and should have Shohei Ohtani back from injury.
