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Dodgers' latest Roki Sasaki twist sounds like a Padres gut punch

Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Friars On Base

World Baseball Classic Semifinals: Mexico v Japan / Eric Espada/GettyImages

It is becoming abundantly clear that this offseason for the San Diego Padres is going to come down to whether or not they can successfully land Roki Sasaki. There are just too many indicators right now that the Padres don't have the ability to spend much.

If they don't land Sasaki, it is decidedly unclear what impact moves they will be able to make at all without some AJ Preller magic or moving a key player like Dylan Cease.

On Monday, Padres fans got great news that Sasaki was spotted working out in San Diego in Padres gear, with a ton of San Diego bigwigs in attendance at the ballpark. While nothing about that indicated a done deal, to be sure (he worked out in Toronto, too), Sasaki getting that close of a look this close to the opening of international free agency felt like a great sign.

Unfortunately, bad news arrived on Tuesday ,as it was reported that not only is Los Angeles still very much in it, but Sasaki is meeting with the Dodgers on Tuesday. At that meeting, LA seems to be pulling out all the stops, much like they did for Shohei Ohtani last winter.

Dodgers meeting with Sasaki on Tuesday could make or break the Padres' offseason

Look, as soon as the field was narrowed down, it was inevitable that every Sasaki finalist was going to get a second meeting with the Japanese star pitcher. Sasaki and agent Joel Wolfe have been very deliberate throughout this entire process, and they were always going to want as much information possible before he made his decision.

Unfortunately, having the Dodgers (and the red carpet they are able to roll out) scheduled right after Sasaki's meeting with the Padres is not ideal. Not only is Sasaki going to get a full court press from the Dodgers' front office, but several LA stars are going to be in attendance as well to help with the pitch to Sasaki. As to which Dodgers players will be in attendance, that hasn't been revealed just yet.

The pace is clearly increasing and, as was reported by Jon Morosi earlier this week, the odds are extremely high that we will know where he is going to be playing by the end of the week. One just hopes that the Padres impressed Sasaki enough to get him to ignore the trappings of LA.

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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.