The Padres will have to go without Roki Sasaki, who chooses the Dodgers – San Diego Union-Tribune

The Padres’ disappointing offseason turned into disappointment on Friday.

Japanese sensation Roki Sasaki has chosen to sign with the Dodgers, an announcement he made on Instagram.

That leaves the Padres facing an uncertain path in the months leading up to the 2025 season and facing the reality of their closest and most annoying rival moving forward with another star player.

“Really proud of the group,” Padres president of baseball operations AJ Preller said Friday night of Sasaki’s recruitment. “Really meticulous and complete work. »

News began filtering in early Friday morning that the Padres had apparently pivoted. They were spending their international bonus money on shortstop Jhoan De la Cruz and left-handed pitcher Carlos Alvarez, two teenagers from the Dominican Republic with whom the team had been linked before the international signing period began.

Although it took time to confirm that these moves meant the Padres were in on Sasaki, their spending on other highly touted prospects was a strong sign that they would not need their entire allocation of bonus for international class price.

The Padres had explored trades to increase their bonus allocation, but additional funds would not be necessary. The Blue Jays completed a trade Friday morning that added $2 million to their allocation, which was originally $6.26 million, like the Padres.

Multiple reports indicate that Sasaki received a $6.5 million signing bonus. As an international free agent, he will earn a league minimum of $760,000 in 2025.

In picking the reigning World Series champions, Sasaki chose to join compatriots Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Los Angeles rather than Yu Darvish and Yuki Matsui in San Diego.

There has been speculation for over a year that Sasaki was all but agreed to a deal with the Dodgers. It was widespread enough that MLB investigated the allegations. But after the process of courting Sasaki, which involved at least seven teams having initial meetings and him traveling to Los Angeles, San Diego and Toronto, some people involved again believed Sasaki was still going to the Dodgers.

Preller declined to comment on the possibility.

“At the end of the day, we want players who want to be here,” Preller said. “We’re going to move forward and look to add to a really talented roster.”

The Padres still have the makings of a solid starting rotation. They intend to start the season with most of their core players from last year, when they won more games than all but four other teams.

But Sasaki embodied hope. He was as much an aspiration and validation as he was a potential ace.

He is 23 years old and has never been tested since he will face the best hitters in the world each time he starts. There was no guarantee that Sasaki would dramatically impact the Padres’ 25 season for the better.

Signing him, however, would certainly have brought some warmth at the end of a long, cold winter.

The Padres didn’t sign any major league free agents this winter and have significant holes to fill as they nurse the sting of this rejection.

Acquiring a potentially dominant starting pitcher at such a deep discount would have been helpful, for sure. But resolving the Sasaki sweepstakes could at least provide a catalyst to reverse the Padres’ offseason inertia.

Team officials said payroll would be higher than the roughly $169 million it was in 2024, but would be lower than current 2025 commitments of nearly $210 million. .

According to members of the organization and others who have dealt with the Padres, the team has at least considered the idea of ​​trading a number of stars to reduce payroll and acquire more affordable talent.

The Padres need at least a starting pitcher, a left fielder and probably a designated hitter as well as some help off the bench. The Padres entered spring training last year without a left fielder and in need of rotation depth. They signed Jurkickson Profar in February and traded for Dylan Cease in March, and both played significant roles in their 93-win season.

“We’ve seen offseasons where we’ve been very aggressive and been able to line up our moves early in the offseason and other years, like last year, where it was later in the process,” Preller said . “…We have a really good core and base that we really like, and we also have some needs. »

The Padres were expected to strengthen their minor league system on Friday.

Both prospects they agreed with were ranked among Baseball America’s top 100 this period, although that’s not particularly high for a team that signed arguably the top prospects the previous two years in Ethan Salas (2023 ) and Leodalis De Vries (2024).

The 5-foot-11 De La Cruz (No. 43) is a shortstop from the Dominican Republic with what scouts consider to be solid but not overwhelming tools in all areas. The 6-foot-5 Alvarez (#70) already hits 93 mph with his fastball. Both are 17 years old.

Baseball America also has the Padres tied with Venezuelan shortstop Deivid Coronil (No. 50) and Venezuelan outfielder Sebastian Peña (No. 70), neither of whom have yet signed.

Jeff Sanders contributed to this report.

Originally published: January 17, 2025 at 3:15 p.m. PST