One former front office executive is suggesting foul play foul play in the Dodgers’ signing of Roki Sasaki.
Just minutes after the Japanese ace announced on Instagram that he was joining the Dodgers next season, former MLB general manager Jim Bowden said in a chat on “Foul Territory” that he thinks an investigation might come about regarding the deal.
“I think you’re gonna find that there is gonna be multiple teams that are going to ask the commissioner’s office to investigate this particular signing,” Bowden said on Foul Territory. “There were several front offices that believed there was a pre-cut deal between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Roki Sasaki before this process started and before the window came where you’re allowed to negotiate with the player. This was, of course, denied by his camp.”
Sasaki trimmed down his long list this week to three teams — Dodgers, Padres and Blue Jays — before ultimately signing with LA on Friday.
In November, Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe of Wasserman, publicly denied any claims of an unwritten agreement.
“While a bunch of executives who should know me better and do a lot of business with me insult my integrity by insinuating that I would be a part of some type of nefarious agreement,” Wolfe told The Athletic, “in reality, this is just poor sportsmanship.”
When asked about these allegations in November, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said that he did not believe that there was any private deal, but mentioned that his office would look into the matter.
“But you know, we’re going to see what happens there,” Manfred said to The Athletic. “If there’s any reason to believe that there was a violation of one of our rules, you can rest assured that we will thoroughly investigate and try to get to the bottom of it.”
During his free agency, discourse around the Sasaki sweepstakes eventually shifted away from Los Angeles, with rumors that the phenom wanted to sign to a small market team, Bowden explained.
“We were told that probably a small market would make sense because of the trouble he [Sasaki] had with the media over in Japan,” Bowden said. “We were told that endorsements played a big role.”
Bowden continued by claiming how nearly every MLB front office who spoke to him believed that Sasaki was a “done deal before the process started.”
Sasaki made his announcement on Friday, with The Athletic reporting that he received a $6.5 million signing bonus.
He’ll add to a staff that already includes Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow and should be getting Shohei Ohtani back from injury.
