A video has recently surfaced of what appears to be Roki Sasaki pitching on flat ground at Petco Park.
There has not been any confirmation on whether the video is actually the Japanese free agent or not but it definitely looks like him and it has been confirmed that Sasaki visited with Padres officials in San Diego, according to Dennis Lin, Will Sammon and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
The San Diego Padres are reportedly among the three finalists for Roki Sasaki, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Passan shared that the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays are also in the running.
Sasaki began eliminating teams on Monday, starting with the San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, New York Yankees, and Texas Rangers. Following Passan’s report, it seems the Chicago Cubs have also been ruled out.
The Padres and Blue Jays, however, are the only two teams confirmed to have held a second meeting with Sasaki, who visited both San Diego and Toronto for in-person discussions.
San Diego hasn’t made many moves this winter and it can be assumed that it is because the front office is waiting for Sasaki to decide where he is going to sign.
Several reports have hinted that the Padres have been a favorite from the beginning and manager Mike Shildt previously voiced strong confidence in the team’s prospects of signing Sasaki at the Winter Meetings.
“We should be very legitimate contenders,” Shildt said during the Winter Meetings. “We fully expect to be right in the mix and actually, at the end of the day, have Sasaki be a Padre. We’ve got a lot of inroads to get to Sasaki. know we’re gonna put the full-court press to make it happen and we’re very optimistic.”
“We feel like, just in general, not from any one specific player, but when we talk to free agents … a lot of people want to be here and play,” he added. “They want to be part of an amazing atmosphere, want to be part of a team that I think everybody in the game feels like can win a world championship.”
