Roki Sasaki throws subtle shade at Blue Jays front office.
Roki Sasaki's comments about the Los Angeles Dodgers front office was a subtle jab at Toronto Blue Jays brass.
If that isn't some sort of jab at Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins, I'm not sure what is.
Even if these comments were made directly towards Ross Atkins and the rest of the Blue Jays' front office, it's difficult to act surprised.
Sasaki spent multiple days in Toronto, and as he departed, the Blue Jays were confident that whatever advantages the Dodgers might have, they were surmountable.
ESPN's Jeff Passan reported that Sasaki was enamored with Toronto's pitching staff and gave him a lot to think about after he left for Los Angeles.
Why? Because the Blue Jays pitching staff impressed Sasaki with their answer to a burning question:
Why had his sizzling fastball lost velocity in 2024?
Frank Herrmann, a Blue Jays baseball operations staffer who had pitched in the big leagues and was Sasaki's teammate with the Chiba Lotte Marines' class='lien_marqueur' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>the Chiba Lotte Marines, and Sam Greene, the Blue Jays' assistant pitching coach, blended a discussion of data, mechanics and feel that boosted their pursuit.
So in reality all the Blue Jays pitching staff did was give Sasaki valuable pitching information on his mechanics making him better going forward for the Dodgers.
Not only that but also gave the Dodgers valuable information about the inner workings of Toronto's pitching staff.
There is also the Myles Straw debacle, that probably didn't look very stable in the eyes of Sasaki and his representatives.
Atkins, attempting to demonstrate its willingness to go above and beyond for Sasaki, struck a deal with the Cleveland Guardians to take on $11.75 million remaining on center fielder Myles Straw's contract along with an additional $2 million in international money even before Sasaki had made his decision.
Soon thereafter, he did...and it wasn't the Blue Jays. What so many in baseball saw as a failed attempt to sign Sasaki got to the point that Major League Baseball did a preemptive investigation into whether Sasaki had any sort of prearranged deal (and determined he didn't)
Between failed extension talks (at least, to this point) with both Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, they've missed out on basically every single free agent and trade target they've had their eyes on, (with the exception of (Anthony Santander) and they've also sent a supremely underperforming team onto the field in each of the past two seasons.
With this front office, and his buddies Ohtani and Yamamoto courting him, it's not that surprising why Sasaki chose the Dodgers over the Blue Jays.
For all your current Toronto Blue Jays and MLB baseball news check out BlueJaysCentral.com on Facebook, X and Blue Sky.
