Finalists For Roki Sasaki Are Dodgers, Padres, and Blue Jays; Sasaki will Decide Team Soon

[Carlos Danger]

2 hours ago, Key22 said:

Trying to be objective, which is tough being a Canadian, but I have been to San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Seattle multiple times. Born in Toronto but lived in British Columbia most of my life.

If I had to choose a city as a place to actually live - I would choose Toronto (or the outlying areas) out of the teams still in it (and it's not particularly close). Canada is IMO a better country than the US. granted it's probably not so much better for multi-millionaires where some of the  Canadian "advantages" are more geared toward the middle class and poor but still.

I've also been to Tokyo and Fukuoka and I get more of a vibe that Canada and Toronto would be a little more like home for him. It's hard to put into words - but clearly, Toronto isn't in the running for the on-field talent or playoff contention for 2025.

To be fair though the Jays have made the playoffs 3 of the last 4 years and while last year was rough it's hard to lose your closer, your star SS, a setup guy, and your CY young finalist for the year and be expected to have that sort of depth waiting in the minors. Sure other teams have injuries but it really depends on WHO gets injured. It was going to be impossible for the Jays to make the playoffs with critical pieces of the team being hurt.

If Swanson and Romano were there all year and pitched to their capabilities all year and Bo was 2023 Bo and Manoah bounced back (and was looking quite good before he got hurt) you have to think that the Jays make the playoffs.

I think that the Jays appeal here is perhaps a bit underrated - they are probably still in third place among the finalists but man - I'd pick living in Toronto and Canada over LA or SD or America - in spite of the snow.

 

 

 

I know you are trying to put a good spin on it. However a few rebuttal points.

If you have money San Diego and Orange County (Where Ohtani lives)!can’t be beat in comparison. 
 

The Blue Jays had one of the least amount of player days on the IL in MLB. The Orioles lost their elite closer and half their SPs, as did the Dodgers? Astros lost key SPs, the list goes on. 

I honestly can’t recall the numbers. However,, I looked it up during the Ohtana saga. There are more Japanese in SoCal area alone then Canada I think it was. 
 

Not sure if he would get more endorsement opportunity if he wants it, then SOCAL even with Darvish, Ohtani and Yamamoto in the area.

[BB17]

I’ve lived in Toronto for 8 years but travel to the US quite a bit and I’d put San Diego at the top of my list of fav cities. But living there as upper middle class and wealthy are even 2 completely different lifestyles I’d imagine.

One thing I haven’t heard much about is he going to be living alone? He’s 23 which is pretty young so not sure if he has a girlfriend/wife or not but I feel like the city would matter way more to them than the actual player.

The schedule is set up in a way where they get like 7 home days off, so I really don’t think the city matters all that much to a young player. Their routine is going home after a game at midnight and the getting to the ballpark at noon the next day so they really don’t see much of the city at all. And as soon as the season is over they all leave as soon as possible for tax purposes.

If I had to guess I bet the actual city itself would factor into less than 10% of his decision. 

[Key22]

2 hours ago, Carlos Danger said:

I know you are trying to put a good spin on it. However a few rebuttal points.

If you have money San Diego and Orange County (Where Ohtani lives)!can’t be beat in comparison. 
 

The Blue Jays had one of the least amount of player days on the IL in MLB. The Orioles lost their elite closer and half their SPs, as did the Dodgers? Astros lost key SPs, the list goes on. 

I honestly can’t recall the numbers. However,, I looked it up during the Ohtana saga. There are more Japanese in SoCal area alone then Canada I think it was. 
 

Not sure if he would get more endorsement opportunity if he wants it, then SOCAL even with Darvish, Ohtani and Yamamoto in the area.

Baltimore is a much better team and has far more talent than we do - it helped to finish last for like a decade to get top draft picks - and hit on those draft picks to their credit. They are well-managed.

But if you take The Yankees, say and had they lost Soto for the entire year, and Cole for the entire year and their closer for the year and their set-up guy for big portions and their next best reliever had his kid get run over and miss big time and come back and stink - you get the idea. They don't make it to the WS.

I am not that interested in the overall numbers in days lost to IL - Teams have 1-26 man rosters - if team 1 loses 3 of the top 5 guys on their team and team 2 loses the bottom 8 guys - team 1 is more affected than team 2. It's easy to replace your back-up catcher, 4th outfielder and 6th starter.

Credit Baltimore - they lost key guys but they have a deep minor league system - when they call guys up they perform. The Jays were running guys like Bradley Zimmer in 2022 that I still can't get over - he was a walking strikeout. He struck out 45 times in 89 at bats. Strangely, it seemed like he struck out more.

So yeah, all this kind of crap is on Ross and Shapiro for not developing and drafting or signing better international free agents. I mean it also doesn't help that the best ones get caught for PEDs (Martinez) or are glass (Tiedeman).

I'd rather live in Toronto or Niagara Falls than Orange County - been there - meh.

I mean the Jays and Toronto must have something the man likes because if it's about on-field production and winning Baltimore, Boston, New York Yankees, New York Mets, San Francisco, Atlanta, Arizona, Kansas City, Texas, and Detroit all seem to be above Toronto on the brighter future front (at least short term). Many of these offer a nicer climate and better farm systems and most have star players locked down for years. Toronto has no star locked up, no farm system, the same climate as NY. So it has to be intangibles like the people, the city. Endorsements seem odd to me - Tim Horton's Roki donuts? What's the angle there?

 

 

[glory]

I have tried, but I can't think of one logical reason why Sasaki would choose the Jays over the Dodgers or Padres, so I'm not getting my hopes up. It's just odd that of the 3 teams left, 2 are in California with strong chances to compete for a title and the other is in Canada coming off a last place finish. Roki would have to really love the org, the city/country, or both. 

[Jimcanuck]

Apparently fishing is Roki's passion.

[saskjayfan]

57 minutes ago, glory said:

I have tried, but I can't think of one logical reason why Sasaki would choose the Jays over the Dodgers or Padres, so I'm not getting my hopes up. It's just odd that of the 3 teams left, 2 are in California with strong chances to compete for a title and the other is in Canada coming off a last place finish. Roki would have to really love the org, the city/country, or both. 

Being the Japanese star of one team will lead to greater endorsement opportunities in Japan vs being the 3rd fiddle on the Dodgers.

You don't think the Jays had 4 Canadian CEO's with endorsement opportunities for Sasaki in Canada?  He's going to be our star.  We'll market the crap out of him.  We'll discount your add spots if you give him an endorsement deal.  Their are some advantages of being a communications conglomerate that produces every Jays game and sells all the advertising for those games in your other lines of business.

Sasaki has also been presented as a guy that would prefer to be in a place away from media frenzy.  He prefers to be low key.  That's entirely impossible, but Jays are probably the best on that front out of all 3 teams.

Today is not the day for news on Sasaki.  Fingers and toes crossed.  Nothing.  If he's signing with the Dodgers it likely comes out today.  With no news today, we have a shot. 

[RobinThicc]

Put some money on the Blue Jays 👀

[Laika]

holy f***

[Eat My Shatkins]

Does RobinThicc have connections or something?

 

Don't play with my emotions people.

[Orgfiller]

RobinThicc going on his Kevin Gray arc. We wish you well in your future endeavours.

[Terminator]

This sounds insane but if you could sign any of the three big "Jays are finalists" types over the past two years you might actually take Sasaki due to his age and how little he is getting paid

[Brownie19]

23 minutes ago, Terminator said:

This sounds insane but if you could sign any of the three big "Jays are finalists" types over the past two years you might actually take Sasaki due to his age and how little he is getting paid

100%

Roki + the equivalent remaining $ spent on several FA's >>> Soto

[Laika]

35 minutes ago, Terminator said:

This sounds insane but if you could sign any of the three big "Jays are finalists" types over the past two years you might actually take Sasaki due to his age and how little he is getting paid

The slurplus value will be franchise altering 

[RobinThicc]

I don’t have inside info, was just joking around lol

[Brownie19]

25 minutes ago, RobinThicc said:

Sorry I meant that I put some money on the Jays lol 

This typo seems like a bannable offense...

[wilko]

41 minutes ago, Terminator said:

This sounds insane but if you could sign any of the three big "Jays are finalists" types over the past two years you might actually take Sasaki due to his age and how little he is getting paid

He would instantly become the face of the Jays. 

[RobinThicc]

4 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

This seems like a bannable offense...

🤷‍♂️

[BatFlip]

10 minutes ago, RobinThicc said:

I don’t have inside info, was just joking around lol

[Eat My Shatkins]

f*** sakes

It was the godamn eyeballs at the end of the post that sucked me in coupled with Laika sounding excited immediately after

[Laika]

yes I did that on purpose 

[Jays24]

you know who has our back unlike some in this thread? Kikuchi lol

 

[Jimcanuck]

Jays made room on the 40 man, trading De Geus to Pitt

[Orgfiller]

15 minutes ago, Jimcanuck said:

Jays made room on the 40 man, trading De Geus to Pitt

Room for Gimenez + Sandlin right? I think he got DFA'd as part of that deal.

[BB17]

1 hour ago, Terminator said:

This sounds insane but if you could sign any of the three big "Jays are finalists" types over the past two years you might actually take Sasaki due to his age and how little he is getting paid

I think I'd still take Ohtani. Maybe Sasaki is the most cost effective but if Ohtani is putting up 50-50 8 WAR type seasons that's something that you'll remember for the rest of time and would be so fun to watch.

[Jimcanuck]

48 minutes ago, Orgfiller said:

Room for Gimenez + Sandlin right? I think he got DFA'd as part of that deal.

I think for something bigger ;)

[Carlos Danger]

So, Sasaki technically has until the 23rd to decide. However, I am not getting the sense they would want to announce on a weekend (Unlike the Ohtani Saturday IG post). Then in the U.S Monday is a holiday. MLK day, Plus!!! The inauguration of President Trump. I don’t think it would be smart to announce on Monday. Next Tuesday to Thursday would really be screwing over teams waiting to dip into the IFA pool. 

Therefore, I am summarizing, we will hear a decision between today and Friday afternoon. 

I have been wrong once or twice though. 

[BB17]

He really should announce it in the next day or so. He's had basically all this time to decide on a team and with today being the IFA opening you're only hurting everyone involved the longer you wait. 

[jaysblue]

18 hours ago, Key22 said:

Trying to be objective, which is tough being a Canadian, but I have been to San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Seattle multiple times. Born in Toronto but lived in British Columbia most of my life.

If I had to choose a city as a place to actually live - I would choose Toronto (or the outlying areas) out of the teams still in it (and it's not particularly close). Canada is IMO a better country than the US. granted it's probably not so much better for multi-millionaires where some of the  Canadian "advantages" are more geared toward the middle class and poor but still.

I've also been to Tokyo and Fukuoka and I get more of a vibe that Canada and Toronto would be a little more like home for him. It's hard to put into words - but clearly, Toronto isn't in the running for the on-field talent or playoff contention for 2025.

To be fair though the Jays have made the playoffs 3 of the last 4 years and while last year was rough it's hard to lose your closer, your star SS, a setup guy, and your CY young finalist for the year and be expected to have that sort of depth waiting in the minors. Sure other teams have injuries but it really depends on WHO gets injured. It was going to be impossible for the Jays to make the playoffs with critical pieces of the team being hurt.

If Swanson and Romano were there all year and pitched to their capabilities all year and Bo was 2023 Bo and Manoah bounced back (and was looking quite good before he got hurt) you have to think that the Jays make the playoffs.

I think that the Jays appeal here is perhaps a bit underrated - they are probably still in third place among the finalists but man - I'd pick living in Toronto and Canada over LA or SD or America - in spite of the snow.

 

 

 

When was the last time you were in Toronto? 

[Terminator]

I doubt he comes here but usually we are a finalist because we are shoving a shitload of money at the player. We basically force our way into being a finalist.

In this instance, every team in the league can offer him about the same amount of money. We will probably be a bridesmaid again but there is something about the franchise that he is highly interested in and it's not money.

And because we stick out like a sore thumb compared to the two SoCal teams, whatever that thing is could be a strike against them and could push us over the top.

[Jimcanuck]

13 minutes ago, Terminator said:

I doubt he comes here but usually we are a finalist because we are shoving a shitload of money at the player. We basically force our way into being a finalist.

In this instance, every team in the league can offer him about the same amount of money. We will probably be a bridesmaid again but there is something about the franchise that he is highly interested in and it's not money.

And because we stick out like a sore thumb compared to the two SoCal teams, whatever that thing is could be a strike against them and could push us over the top.

He was in the third grade during the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake. The resulting tsunami swept away his house. His father and grandparents died, while Sasaki, his mother, and his two brothers had to live in a nursing home during the recovery.

Could this be it?