Roki Sasaki announced he would be joining the Los Angeles Dodgers Friday and the baseball world cried. But the Dodgers paid no attention to their critics and continued marching through the offseason acquiring top free agent reliever Tanner Scott Sunday morning.
Less than an hour after Sasaki was signed, MLB insider Jim Bowden said he believed there would be an investigation following the signing of the Japanese phenom.
“I think you’re gonna find that there’s gonna be multiple teams that are going to ask the commissioner’s office to investigate this particular signing,” Bowden said on Foul Territory right after Sasaki’s announcement. “Because I can tell you, there were several front offices that believed there was a pre-cut deal between the Dodgers and Roki Sasaki. This was, of course, denied by his camp. It was denied to such an extent that it made you scratch your head a little bit.”
Bowden’s remarks were particularly bewildering, since he had predicted Sasaki would land with the San Diego Padres throughout the offseason. Had he believed a genuine deal existed between the Dodgers and Sasaki, why did Bowden predict the 23-year-old pitcher would land with another team?
Nevertheless, Bowden sang the Dodgers’ praises on Sunday.
“This is a huge deal for the Dodgers to add another big, back-end, power, high-leverage reliever to go with Blake Treinen,” Bowden said on MLB Network. “That’s a huge need in my opinion. So now you got two big impact guys at the back-end. You added two aces in Blake Snell and Sasaki.
“So you took the World Champion Dodgers, you brought back all the guys you needed to, including Teoscar Hernández. You added Michael Conforto to give you a little better outfield depth. Then you add three impact pitchers, a Cy Young candidate in Snell, a future Cy Young candidate in Roki Sasaki, and arguably the best left-hander closer in the sport. The rich get richer.
“Now its the Dodgers and the other 29 teams.”
As the Dodgers are in the midst of forming baseball’s next dynasty, it’s evident the team isn’t focused on outside noise. Regardless of what anyone says, the Dodgers will continue to run their franchise at a high level.
Like Bowden said, it’s the Dodgers and everyone else.
