When 23-year-old Japanese pitcher Rōki Sasaki announced his intentions of joining the MLB this past winter, all eyes pointed towards the Los Angeles Dodgers. On Jan. 22, Sasaki officially became the newest member of the Dodgers’ dominant starting rotation. However, the signing once again left fans wondering whether or not the Dodgers are ruining the game of baseball.
At age 17, Sasaki’s fastball regularly reached speeds of 100 mph, catching the eye of many international baseball scouts. The player was selected first overall by the Chiba Lotte Marines in the 2019 Nippon Professional Baseball draft, and made his NPB debut in Japan on May 16, 2021. Sasaki’s career in Japan was marked by a 29-15 win-loss record, 2.10 ERA, 505 strikeouts and a perfect game on April 10, 2022. In that game, Sasaki tied the NPB record for most strikeouts in a single game, 19, and he set the world record for consecutive strikeouts in a single game, 13. A year later, Sasaki earned gold at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, pitching alongside fellow baseball stars Yu Darvish, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani.
Sasaki signed with Los Angeles with a signing bonus of $6.5 million, a relatively small amount due to his title as an “international amateur” under MLB rules and his lack of service time in the NBP. Sasaki will pitch alongside Yamamoto and Ohtani, two other Japanese superstars that recently signed with the Dodgers — Yamamoto on a 12-year contract for $325 million, and Ohtani on a 10-year, $700 million contract with $680 million deferred. The Dodgers also signed Blake Snell, a two-time Cy Young winner, to a five-year, $182 million contract with $66 million deferred and other players including Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, Tommy Edman, Blake Treinen and Teoscar Hernández. With each player they signed, the Dodgers deferred millions of dollars, guaranteeing player income over a longer period of time and helping the team stay below the luxury tax threshold.
This upcoming Dodgers team has “unfair” written all over it, and it’s hard to deny the team’s obnoxious payroll and money market. However, although Sasaki signed with the Dodgers for $6.5 million, that wasn’t his highest offer — the Toronto Blue Jays, one of the teams Sasaki was considering, could have offered the player $8.26 million.
So why did Sasaki choose the Dodgers? Even when teams outbid the Dodgers, players often take on less money just to play in Los Angeles. Players want to win, and many see the Dodgers as a route to that goal. As a result, many players willingly sign team-friendly contracts with the Dodgers. Ohtani’s contract, for example, is one of the most team-friendly signings in baseball history. Despite his stellar performances and high revenue he generates for the Dodgers, Ohtani allows the Dodgers to defer $680 million of his yearly salary to a closed bank account which he will receive after his contract ends.
“The business model in baseball, it’s worked pretty well for a long time, but there’s a few things right now that are just a little out of kilter,” Chicago Cubs Owner Tom Ricketts, who had also tried to sign Sasaki, told 670 The Score in Chicago a day after Sasaki’s signing. “Obviously, the Dodgers have a lot more resources, naturally, from smart business moves they made years ago. I don’t begrudge them any of that.”
These “smart business moves” were largely developed following the catastrophic ownership collapse of Frank McCourt, in which the Dodgers underwent a messy bankruptcy and a cathartic acquisition by Guggenheim Baseball Management. Since then, the Dodgers have reshaped their organization by bringing in strong leaders including Mark Walter, Stan Kasten and Earvin “Magic” Johnson. They have also invested more money into key areas like player development, analytics, scouting and coaching.
“Some teams just have outside resources that are funding their player moves and acquisitions, and that’s really hard to compete with,” Ricketts said. “I understand when fans say, ‘How come you don’t spend like that?’ Because they think somehow we have all these dollars that the Dodgers have or the Mets have or the Yankees have and we just keep it. Which isn’t true at all. What happens is we try to break even every year, and that’s about it.”
Despite the MLB implementing ineffective anti-spending measures such as luxury taxes, the qualifying offer system, or draft-pick punishments, I don’t believe this necessarily means the league needs to introduce a salary cap. In truth, I think the Dodgers are the product of overwhelmingly supported players and unanimously approved owners. Teams in need of players like Sasaki eventually lose out to already well-rounded teams.
Regardless of money, the unpredictable nature of regular season and, more importantly, postseason baseball will always be a safeguard for competition. This past year’s postseason also featured teams from smaller-market cities like Milwaukee, Detroit, Kansas City, Cleveland, Baltimore and San Diego. The current system of baseball has its quirks and the MLB may have to address some of them soon, but, for now, all we can do is watch as the Dodgers keep playing their cards a little better than we may care to admit.