A's Officially Out on Roki Sasaki

The Athletics were always considered a long shot to land Roki Sasaki, one of the top free agent pitchers on the board this offseason, though there could have been a glimmer of hope for such a decision based off his agent saying that market size didn't matter, and the A's having the largest international bonus pool to spend.

There was also a report in recent weeks that only 20 of the 30 MLB teams even made Saski an offer, and that was when it seemed more clear that the A's would be on the ten teams that didn't even have a hat in the ring.

It's unclear why so many teams didn't even take a chance to land Sasaki, who will be making the league minimum for the next three seasons, but one theory is that those teams were told not to even bother. Given the A's recent history and that they'll be playing in a minor-league ballpark for at least the next three seasons, it's easy to make a case that Sasaki wouldn't want to consider the green and gold.

If he's already taking a huge pay cut to play Major League Baseball right now, he may as well get the whole big league experience for his trouble.

On Monday, reports started surfacing that different teams were out of the running, and while the A's were never mentioned specifically in one of those, Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that the list of finalists consists of the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres--the two front-runners from the beginning--and the Toronto Blue Jays.

The fact that there was no report that said something like "the A's have been told they are no longer in the running" seems to suggest that they were never in the running to begin with, and likely one of those ten teams not to make an offer in the first place.

The inclusion of the Jays as finalist is a bit baffling, given that two of their best players, Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., are set to hit the free agent market after the 2025 season. Toronto also finished in last place in the AL East with a 74-88 record last year, so they're not necessarily in contention even with Bichette and Guerrero.

The most intriguing outcome here would be for Sasaki to choose the San Diego Padres, who haven't done a ton this winter, but are still seen as the main threat to the Dodgers in the NL West. L.A. would have Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, while San Diego would boast Sasaki and Yu Darvish. That would make for some compelling matchups.

The addition of Sasaki could also make it so that the Padres could move Dylan Cease, who has been in trade rumors all winter, and have less fear of how that would impact the team's chances in 2025 while also adding some pieces elsewhere on the roster, or to the farm system for a later date.

With the 2025 international signing period set to open on January 15, we'll likely have a resolution to where Sasaki will sign by the end of the week. His 45-day posting window is set to close on January 23, so that would be the latest possible date that he could agree to terms with a club.

We just know it won't be the A's.