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

[BTS]

1 hour ago, Pendleton said:

 

Does he have sources or is he just guessing?

[Grant77]

2 hours ago, The Cats Ass said:

LA and SD are both scrambling to trade for more international bonus money. I think he’s picking the Jays, and they both know it. They’re making one last ditch effort to buy him, but he can’t be bought. 
 

Or they’re going to try and sign the players the Jays had verbal agreements with. Either way, I think we got him. I’m ordering my Sasaki jersey today to beat the rush. 

I'm worried for your mental state when he signs in California. You're delusional right now.

[Pendleton]

12 minutes ago, BTS said:

Does he have sources or is he just guessing?

 

To me it seems like he's insinuating that he knows something. I could be wrong but I don't think he's ever been one to get involved in the rumor mill. 

[Orgfiller]

33 minutes ago, BTS said:

Does he have sources or is he just guessing?

I've seen enough of these former Toronto reporters throw their body on the line only to be wrong to frankly put no stock into a tweet like this. Might as well be coming from some random account with 3 followers.

[Jimcanuck]

The reason for the relative lack of off-season activity soon to be apparent.  Roki!

[Pendleton]

10 minutes ago, Orgfiller said:

I've seen enough of these former Toronto reporters throw their body on the line only to be wrong to frankly put no stock into a tweet like this. Might as well be coming from some random account with 3 followers.

 

You may very well be right. As far as former Toronto reporters go though, Hodge does strike me as being reasonable and having integrity compared to some of them. 

 

But then again, older reporter who has been out of the game for nearly eight years. Have to question/wonder what his source could be 

[204Jays]

f*** Dave Hodge for getting my hopes up. 

Hopefully that old fart is right this time.

[Carlos Danger]

23 minutes ago, Jimcanuck said:

The reason for the relative lack of off-season activity soon to be apparent.  Roki!

Why, all he is really costing is International $. Very cheap!! Are you talking roster spots? 

[Jays24]

Haha Dave Hodge is now an insider eh.  

[Jimcanuck]

1 hour ago, Carlos Danger said:

Why, all he is really costing is International $. Very cheap!! Are you talking roster spots? 

Cmon man.  Luxury tax?

Jays are certain to get Bregman if they land sasaki.  And try to stay under the threshold

On the flip side, if they don't get Sasaki, there is no Bregman and no Vlad extension / he gets traded

[glory]

Reality is, no one except Sasaki knows anything. MLB winters are so boring that content is hard to come by. Combine that with social media and the quest for engagement, and we are going to see a lot of BS floating around. Better to just wait for Passan to report it, even though waiting sucks. So far the Jays have not been announced as being out, and they haven’t used their international money yet, so for those who are dreaming, you still can. 

[Pendleton]

1 hour ago, Jays24 said:

Haha Dave Hodge is now an insider eh.  

I don't really ever put much, if any stock in these kinds of rumours.  But I give it a slight bit more weight coming from a guy like Hodge, who correct me if I'm wrong but really has never struck me as a rumor pusher. He was also once fired from HNIC for speaking his mind about their production on air. With some of these guys, you know they just throw s*** at the wall and hope something sticks. In this case, I can genuinely believe Hodge heard something that makes him believe this is happening. It's just a matter of whether he received genuine info or not. 

[BB17]

Yeah there really is no reason for Hodge to lie. He’s retired and has nothing to gain from “being right”. 

At the same time I won’t believe it till I see it, look at what happened with Ohtani. All of a sudden you hear he’s on a flight, made dinner reservations blah blah, all complete crap.

Just wake me up when he signs on the dotted line, if it’s with the Jays great. But I’m not getting my hopes up.

[wilko]

Someone log Dave Hodge out of Twitter and change his password. 

[Laika]

Holy s***!

[Carlos Danger]

1 hour ago, Jimcanuck said:

Cmon man.  Luxury tax?

Jays are certain to get Bregman if they land sasaki.  And try to stay under the threshold

On the flip side, if they don't get Sasaki, there is no Bregman and no Vlad extension / he gets traded

I thought the penalty was reduced international bonus funds or lower hard caps the next year? His actually salary would be very little wouldn't it? Plus the luxury tax isn't calculated until EOY. So, I don't think teams going after Bregman would need to wait until Sasaki signs? 

 

Or what am I missing??

[L54]

👀 👀 👀 

[Jimcanuck]

14 minutes ago, Carlos Danger said:

I thought the penalty was reduced international bonus funds or lower hard caps the next year? His actually salary would be very little wouldn't it? Plus the luxury tax isn't calculated until EOY. So, I don't think teams going after Bregman would need to wait until Sasaki signs? 

 

Or what am I missing??

What you are missing is this is all speculation / spitballing / trolling.

[Carlos Danger]

2 minutes ago, Jimcanuck said:

What you are missing is this is all speculation / spitballing / trolling.

What am I missing on how an international FA signing would hold up normal FA signings and how it affects the Teams year end luxury tax?????

You stated that Sasaki is holding up other(regular)FA signings?

[Jimcanuck]

Just now, Carlos Danger said:

What am I missing on how an international FA signing would hold up normal FA signings and how it affects the Teams year end luxury tax?????

We know the FO needed ownership permission to make offers to Ohtani and Soto.  Is 200M for Bregman in the same vein.  And did ownership make permission conditional on Sasaki signing?  Giving the Jays a real shot at a highly successful season?

Does Bregman have standing offers and waiting on Sasaki decision?

Who knows?

[Terminator]

26 minutes ago, Carlos Danger said:

I thought the penalty was reduced international bonus funds or lower hard caps the next year? His actually salary would be very little wouldn't it? Plus the luxury tax isn't calculated until EOY. So, I don't think teams going after Bregman would need to wait until Sasaki signs? 

 

Or what am I missing??

Jim is way too certain on how he thinks the offseason will play out but a lot of signings/trades are loosely connected dominos. 

For example, maybe the Jays don't get Sasaki and decide they need to sign Flaherty or Pivetta and can no longer afford Bregman.

[Jimcanuck]

I'm not certain about anything.  This is all speculation / spitballing / trolling / getting paid to bring traffic to the website.

[Carlos Danger]

8 minutes ago, Terminator said:

Jim is way too certain on how he thinks the offseason will play out but a lot of signings/trades are loosely connected dominos. 

For example, maybe the Jays don't get Sasaki and decide they need to sign Flaherty or Pivetta and can no longer afford Bregman.

I get that.  Jim’s initial post framed it as a luxury tax issue or budgetary issue if a team signs Sasaki they won’t have money or will be passing the tax penalty threshold etc.  I believe salary wise, Sasaki won’t even be eligible for arb for two years. 

[Jimcanuck]

Just now, Carlos Danger said:

I get that.  Jim’s initial post framed it as a luxury tax issue or budgetary issue if a team signs Sasaki they won’t have money or will be passing the tax penalty threshold etc.  I believe salary wise, Sasaki won’t even be eligible for arb for two years. 

I don't think ownership would permit getting into luxury tax territory unless it is warranted, and Sasaki would warrant it.

They were willing to go way over for Ohtani and Soto.  Likely see Sasaki as a similar high profile get.

Sasaki or bust!

[204Jays]

As others have noted, Hodge doesn't strike me as the type to rile people up for clicks.

I assume he's somewhat connected in the Toronto sports scene being around for it ages - so hopefully he's right here. In the meantime, ill keep circling back here not being fully productive today haha.

[204Jays]

1 minute ago, Jimcanuck said:

I don't think ownership would permit getting into luxury tax territory unless it is warranted, and Sasaki would warrant it.

They were willing to go way over for Ohtani and Soto.  Likely see Sasaki as a similar high profile get.

Sasaki or bust!

Sasaki's deal is somewhat unique for its low risk/high reward circumstances - assuming he's the potential ace many have speculated.

Not sure why there's any banter about his contract - doesn't it max out at $10M (unsure how many years that's spread over) - either way, not sure this moved the needle whatsoever cap wise.

[Jimcanuck]

1 minute ago, 204Jays said:

Sasaki's deal is somewhat unique for its low risk/high reward circumstances - assuming he's the potential ace many have speculated.

Not sure why there's any banter about his contract - doesn't it max out at $10M (unsure how many years that's spread over) - either way, not sure this moved the needle whatsoever cap wise.

He gets paid league minimum but that's not the point.  MLB is a business.

Shatkins are on a 1 yr deal, ownership likely has a tighter leash then before.  Any major investments like a Bregman probably have to be justified or no dice.

[204Jays]

17 minutes ago, Jimcanuck said:

He gets paid league minimum but that's not the point.  MLB is a business.

Shatkins are on a 1 yr deal, ownership likely has a tighter leash then before.  Any major investments like a Bregman probably have to be justified or no dice.

1 year deal or not ... signing an impact player for the minimum is a no brainer? lol. Only way this impacts other potential signees IMO is the benefit of playing with more starpower (which should help)

[Carlos Danger]

New MLB rumor may explain why New York Yankees and New York Mets failed in Roki Sasaki pursuit

 

https://sportsnaut.com/new-york-yankees-rumors-reason-for-roki-sasaki-failure/

“In Roki Sasaki’s past meetings with teams, he has come across as a very quiet, very serious person,” Olney wrote in a post on X. “This is being interpreted by some teams as a sign that he might prefer to be in a place where he isn’t the center of attention. In a smaller market, or among more established stars.”

That fear of the pressures of New York and a big market is understandable. Many more established players have failed under the bright lights in the big city. However, for months there have been rumblings of the Los Angeles Dodgers being a favorite to land Sasaki. LA offers just as much pressure as NY.

• Roki Sasaki contract (Projection): Five years, $9.5 million

However, he would not even be the top Japanese star in Los Angeles with Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto already on the roster. Those two stars would offer some unique home-country shade the Mets and Yankees can’t.

But this may also explain why the San Diego Padres have long been seen as a serious contender. They certainly offer a smaller market club with big stars. But they also have Yu Darvish, a person who has been a mentor to Sasaki for years. Either way, the two West Coast teams had more to offer the talented pitcher than their East Coast counterparts.

[Jimcanuck]

Just now, 204Jays said:

1 year deal or not ... signing in impact player for the minimum is a no brainer? lol. Only way this impacts other potential signees IMO is the benefit of playing with more starpower (which should help)

You seem to be missing that MLB is a business first and foremost.