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Toronto Blue Jays Officially Miss Out Again as Roki Sasaki Signs with Dodgers

The Blue Jays miss out on the big one once more.
Brady Farkas|
Japan starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (14) delivers a pitch during the first inning against Mexico at LoanDepot Park in 2023.
Japan starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (14) delivers a pitch during the first inning against Mexico at LoanDepot Park in 2023. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

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Toronto Blue Jays

After days of hopeful speculation, the Toronto Blue Jays have officially missed out on free agent sensation Roki Sasaki.

Sasaki announced on Instagram that he is signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers, as had been anticipated for months.

With Los Angeles, Sasaki will join forces with Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow to make the most dynamic rotation in baseball. That doesn't even include other options like Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May, who are coming back from injury.

The 23-year-old Sasaki was the most coveted international free agent of this cycle and perhaps the most coveted free agent of anyone not named Juan Soto. He throws more than 100 MPH and flashes one of the best splitters in the world.

For the Jays, it's another frustrating miss on the free agent market. After striking out on Ohtani last season, they missed out on Soto, Corbin Burnes, Teoscar Hernandez and Max Fried so far this offseason, in addition to Sasaki. They had been hoping to add him to a rotation that includes Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt and Jose Berrios.

After the Padres were eliminated from the race on Friday morning, hope built for the Jays, and they even acquired $2 million in international bonus money to sweeten the pot for Sasaki on Friday afternoon, but it clearly didn't matter.

Toronto will now go back to the drawing board in trying to secure more talent this offseason. They've been connected to Alex Bregman and Anthony Santander, and there's still the chance that that could ink Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a lucrative contract extension.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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