Roki Sasaki’s free agency will be remembered as if no team other than the Los Angeles Dodgers had a chancebut there was a small window on Friday where it looked like the Toronto Blue Jays were up to something.
HAS 11:30 a.m. ETThe Blue Jays announced they had acquired Cleveland Guardians outfielder Myles Straw, cash and international bonus money in exchange for a player to be named later or cash.
At first glance, this trade made little sense. Straw is one of those players who essentially has negative value. The 30-year-old is a brilliant defender, but an anemic bat has kept him from becoming an MLB regular, to the point where he spent almost all of last season at Triple-A, where he hit .651 OPS. And because of a questionable five-year deal the Guardians gave him, he’s still owed $13.8 million, plus the money needed to buy out his club’s options for 2026 and 2027.
The Guardians sent at least $3.75 million to help offset Straw’s deal, but that still meant the Blue Jays were still agreeing to pay $11 million for a batless, all-glove player, a type of player of which they already had a lot.
The only way this could make sense was if the $2 million in bonuses acquired by the Jays were used. Notably by sweetening the pot for Sasaki, who was required by international free agent rules to receive a bonus representing a fraction of his true value. The trade brought the Jays’ international pool to approximately $8.3 million.
No one knew anything for sure outside of Sasaki’s camp (and perhaps the Dodgers’ front office, if we believe some people), but one theory worked like this:
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The Blue Jays executed a trade that would make no sense without Sasaki.
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The Blue Jays would not make such a trade without having a deal in place with Sasaki.
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The Blue Jays must have a deal in the works with Sasaki.
This would have made sense if the Blue Jays had operated like a normal team. Instead, Sasaki announced he was signing with the Dodgers a few hours later, leaving a huge question of what exactly Toronto was doing.
On Saturday, The Athletic answered that question by reporting that the Blue Jays made the trade without Sasaki’s green light. Instead, they “seemed determined to prove to Sasaki that they were willing to do whatever it took to land him” after sensing the Dodgers were the favorites.
Rival managers didn’t like the way the team succeeded:
It was a questionable strategy, especially without a deal in place, prompting a rival executive to say, “My phone has been blowing up all day with ‘wtf Jays.’ » An executive still involved in the process took note of the Blue Jays’ addition. at the pool of money they could offer Sasaki, but found some comfort in the fact that Wolfe had given similar instructions to the remaining clubs. But the Blue Jays’ motivation was clear: They hoped their campaign for Sasaki would end differently than their failures in Ohtani and Juan Soto, which only teased the fanbase and further defined the franchise as a perennial runner-up.
That Shohei Ohtani plane incident really left a mark on this franchise.
The Athletic reports that the other two finalists, the Dodgers and San Diego Padres, had both reached their own deals, but – and this is key – did so. not pull the trigger until they were told Sasaki was signing with them. San Diego was reportedly willing to make a deal to increase its bonus pool to a maximum of 160%, while the Dodgers ended up striking deals with the Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds to acquire a few million dollars bonuses in order to increase their bonus pool, at the expense of minor prospects.
If you value each of the prospects the Dodgers sent away — outfielders Dylan Campbell and Arnaldo Lantigua — as worth less than $11 million, the Dodgers ended up making only the second and third most expensive trades to accommodate Sasaki. Because, and this really needs to be repeated to be understood, the Blue Jays traded for an $11 million replacement player just to convince a guy they wanted him. It’s the baseball equivalent of getting a tattoo to convince someone you really want to date them.
It’s one thing to miss Ohtani or Juan Soto. It’s another thing to pay for the privilege, and that’s what Toronto did this time around. We shouldn’t rule out Straw having a bounce-back year in Toronto’s outfield in 2025, but there’s no denying he landed in Toronto by misadventure.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers reportedly implemented a full-field press in their second, more in-depth meeting with Sasaki, with appearances from Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Will Smith, Tommy Edman, president of the baseball operations Andrew. Friedman, general manager Brandon Games and minority owner Magic Johnson, who gave Sasaki, apparently a big basketball fan, a signed jersey.
The group reportedly went to co-owner Peter Guber’s home in Bel Air, where a private chef served sushi while the conversation continued. Shortly before Sasaki announced his decision, Ohtani reported to team executives via text message, saying, “We got him.”
An overarching narrative around the entire Sasaki situation was how different the Dodgers are from every other team, and that seemingly extended to the nuts and bolts of the process as well.
