Padres will have to move on without Roki Sasaki, who chooses Dodgers – San Diego Union-Tribune

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The Padres’ underwhelming offseason descended into disappointment on Friday.

Japanese sensation Roki Sasaki chose to sign with the Dodgers, an announcement he made on Instagram.

That leaves the Padres to face an uncertain path in the months leading up to the 2025 season and to face the reality of their closest and most irksome rival going forward with yet another star player.

“Really proud of the group,” Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller said Friday night of the recruiting of Sasaki. “Really thorough and complete job.”

News began to filter out early Friday morning that the Padres had apparently pivoted. They were spending their international bonus pool money on shortstop Jhoan De la Cruz and left-handed pitcher Carlos Alvarez, two teenagers from the Dominican Republic the team had been tied to before the international signing period began.

While it took time to confirm that those moves meant the Padres were out on Sasaki, their spending money on other highly touted prospects was a strong sign they would not need their full bonus pool allotment for the prize of the international class.

The Padres had explored trades to up their bonus pool allotment, but extra funds would not be necessary. The Blue Jays completed a trade Friday morning that added $2 million to their allotment, which was originally $6.26 million, same as the Padres.

Multiple reports said Sasaki received a signing bonus of $6.5 million. As an international free agent, he will make the league minimum $760,000 in 2025.

In choosing the defending World Series champions, Sasaki opted to join countrymen Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Los Angeles rather than Yu Darvish and Yuki Matsui in San Diego.

There has been speculation for more than a year that Sasaki had all but agreed on a deal with the Dodgers. It was rampant enough that MLB investigated the claims. But after the process of wooing Sasaki, which involved at least seven teams getting initial meetings and him visiting L.A., San Diego and Toronto, there was renewed belief by some involved that Sasaki was going to the Dodgers all along.

Preller declined to comment on that possibility.

“At the end of the day, we want players that want to be here,” Preller said. “We’ll move forward and look to add to a really talented roster.”

The Padres still have the makings of a solid starting rotation. They intend to begin the season with most of their core players from last year, when they won more games than all but four other teams.

But Sasaki personified hope. He was as much aspiration and validation as he was a potential ace.

He is 23 years old and has never been tested as he will be facing the best hitters in the world every start. There was no guarantee Sasaki was going to greatly impact the Padres’ ‘25 season for the better.

Signing him, though, certainly would have provided warmth near the end of a long, cold winter.

The Padres have signed no major league free agents this winter and have some significant holes to fill while they nurse the sting of this rejection.

Acquiring a potentially dominant starting pitcher at such a steep reduction would have been helpful, for sure. But resolution of the Sasaki sweepstakes could at least provide a catalyst to reverse the inertia of the Padres’ offseason.

Team officials have said payroll will be higher than the approximately $169 million it was in 2024 but that it will be lower than the current commitments for 2025, which stand at nearly $210 million.

According to people in the organization and others who have dealt with the Padres, the team has at least entertained the idea of trading any number of stars to get payroll down and acquire more affordable talent.

The Padres need at least one starting pitcher, a left fielder and probably a designated hitter along with bench help. The Padres went into spring training last year without a left fielder and needing rotation depth. They signed Jurkickson Profar in February and traded for Dylan Cease in March, and both played significant roles in their 93-win season.

“We’ve seen offseasons where we’ve been really aggressive and been able to line up on moves early in the offseason and other years, like last year, where it was later in the process,” Preller said. “… We’ve got a really good core and good foundation we like a lot, and we’ve got some needs as well.”

As of Friday, the Padres were left to bolster their minor league system.

Both prospects they agreed with were ranked among Baseball America’s top-100 this period, although not especially high for a team that signed arguably the top prospects the previous two years in Ethan Salas (2023) and Leodalis De Vries (2024).

The 5-foot-11 De La Cruz (No. 43) is a switch-hitting shortstop from the Dominican Republic with what scouts consider to be solid but not overwhelming tools across the board. The 6-foot-5 Alvarez (No. 70) already hits 93 mph with his fastball. Both are 17 years old.

Baseball America also has the Padres tied to Venezuelan shortstop Deivid Coronil (No. 50) and Venezuelan outfielder Sebastian Peña (No. 70), neither of whom have signed yet.

Jeff Sanders contributed to this report.

Originally Published: January 17, 2025 at 3:15 PM PST

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