The Dodgers offseason wouldn’t have necessarily been a failure if they missed on star Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki.
But by agreeing to sign the 23-year-old star right-hander Friday, the club ensured that they were the envy of the sport for a second straight winter.
Sasaki’s decision to play for the Dodgers, on what will start as a standard minor-league contract with a modest $6.5 million signing bonus, instantly transforms the club’s short- and long-term future.
He will become another cog in their plans to repeat as World Series champions next season. Meanwhile, his exceedingly affordable contract — which Sasaki was limited to because he was coming over from Japan before turning 25 and therefore classified as an international amateur — could make him a cost-effective cornerstone for years to come.
Read more: Dodgers to sign Japanese star Roki Sasaki in yet another free-agency victory for L.A.
It’s all part of the reason why the Dodgers had scouted the young flame-thrower so heavily in recent years; why they made signing him a “major priority” this winter, in the words of president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman.
Now that they have, they seem as primed as ever to turn their recent decade-plus of dominance into an all-out dynasty. Here are three takeaways on the impact of Sasaki’s arrival.
An affordable contract
While Sasaki’s tools alone — a triple-digit fastball, wipeout splitter and fluid movements from his 6-foot-4 frame — would have made him a highly coveted free-agent target, the financial constraints he faced turned him into a generational bargain, similar to when Shohei Ohtani (then also 23) first signed with the Angels in Dec. 2017.
Because Sasaki was classified as an international amateur — putting him in the same boat as teenage prospects from Latin America — he could only accept a standard minor-league contract with a signing bonus capped by the amount of money in his new team’s international bonus pool.
The Dodgers had only $5.146 million in their bonus pool, tied for the smallest amount in the league, but made two trades Friday with the Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds to acquire more and complete Sasaki’s $6.5 million signing.
That will represent the largest cash outlay the team will owe him for a while.
Once Sasaki is added to the Dodgers major league roster at the start of the season, the team can pay him as little as the league minimum salary his first three seasons. In 2025, that will amount to $760,000. In 2026, it will be $780,000. The 2027 minimum salary has not yet been decided. The team could pay him above that scale, but likely wouldn’t exceed it much.
Starting in 2028, Sasaki will finally be able to start earning significant raises through MLB’s arbitration system, though those salaries could still be seen as a bargain.
Read more: Hernández: By joining Dodgers, Roki Sasaki prioritizes development over being a team’s top star
Ohtani, for example, agreed to an $8.5 million contract with the Angels that covered his first two seasons of arbitration in 2021 and 2022, before then negotiating a $30 million salary for 2023. In all, Ohtani made just under $40 million in his six seasons with the Angels — during which time he won two MVP awards, a Rookie of the Year and was a three-time All-Star.
If Sasaki lives up to expectations, he could make a similar (if not somewhat larger) amount in his six seasons of team control. But, even when also accounting for his signing bonus, that might make the overall financial commitment less than a third of the $182 million the Dodgers gave to Blake Snell in a five-year deal this winter, for comparison.
Sasaki will also have the ability to bolster his earnings over his first three years through MLB’s new pre-arbitration bonus pool, which rewards top-performing pre-arbitration players around the league through a pool of money to which all teams contribute. But that’s no major windfall either. This year’s top earner, Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals, netted only an extra $3.1 million. Paul Skenes, the star rookie pitcher of the Pittsburgh Pirates, collected an additional $2.2 million.
A stacked rotation
Even after the Dodgers signed Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto last year, it was easy to envision a scenario in which one or both got hurt, and the Dodgers suffered a starting pitching drop-off beyond them.
Entering 2025, any such disaster outcome seems far less impactful.
With Sasaki in the fold, the Dodgers now have five pitchers with potential ace-quality stuff: Snell (a two-time Cy Young Award winner), Glasnow (who had a 3.49 ERA last season before getting hurt), Yamamoto (the most consistent starter during the Dodgers’ World Series run), Sasaki (who had a career 2.10 ERA in Japan) and Ohtani (albeit, coming off a second Tommy John surgery).
They also have veteran depth in the likes of Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin (who will be returning from their own long-term injuries) as well as Clayton Kershaw (who is still expected to re-sign with the Dodgers). Plus, there are plenty of younger arms capable of production, from Landon Knack to Bobby Miller to Emmet Sheehan (when he returns mid-season from his own injury).
Granted, many of these names will be on innings restrictions or injury watch next year. The Dodgers didn’t have any pitcher eclipse 150 innings last year. Given their expected use of a six-man rotation in 2025, it’s possible they have none again next year.
But, even without perfect injury luck, the Dodgers should have enough depth to cushion most blows — and avoid a trade deadline scramble like last season, when they saved their pitching staff by acquiring Jack Flaherty at the last second.
And on the other hand, in a world where most of their top arms remain healthy and effective, the Dodgers could possess one of the most imposing starting pitching staffs in recent memory.
They didn’t just raise the floor of their rotation (which needed it after ranking 19th in ERA amid last season’s repeated injury woes). They also raised the ceiling of the group to stratospheric heights, turning one of last season’s biggest weaknesses into a potential strength.
Less pressure on Sasaki
Because of all that rotation depth, the Dodgers were likely able to offer Sasaki something few other teams could:
Not just the guarantee of a six-man rotation (which would help mimic the once-per-week pitching schedule he had in Japan), but also the security of knowing the team could absorb any potential growing pains he might face early in his career.
After all, while the Dodgers are hopeful that Sasaki’s Japanese dominance will immediately translate to MLB, they don’t necessarily need it to right away. With the San Diego Padres, or Toronto Blue Jays, or any other club that wooed Sasaki this offseason, that might not have been the case.
Read more: Shaikin: Roki Sasaki is a Dodger. Here’s why it’s a great day for baseball
The Dodgers, however, are well-positioned to compensate for possible struggles the young pitcher might face, knowing the rest of their talent-rich pitching staff should be able to pick up any slack.
Sasaki was evidently under no illusions about the challenge lying before him in the majors. Last month, his agent Joel Wolfe told reporters that “Roki is by no means a finished product. He knows it, and the teams know it. He’s incredibly talented. We all know that. But he is a guy who wants to be great.”
True greatness could take time to achieve, especially after Sasaki battled shoulder fatigue and a slight drop in fastball velocity last season. Evaluators believe the right-hander could benefit from the addition of another breaking pitch, or at least more improvement to the slider he currently pairs with his fastball and splitter.
The Dodgers have a track record of helping pitchers make such improvements. And, given their superfluous supply of pitching talent, should also be able to provide Sasaki time to achieve those gains — and realize his tantalizing potential without the pressure of performing like an instant ace.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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