The Toronto Blue Jays have taken some big swings over the last few offseasons.
Everyone will remember the Blue Jays’ pursuit of two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani. The Los Angeles Dodgers ended up inking him to a historic $700 million deal, but Toronto reportedly was right there with Los Angeles right up until the end. Toronto reportedly made a run at Juan Soto last year, too, but didn’t ink him either. The Blue Jays tried to add some pitching last offseason as well and reportedly entered the Rōki Sasaki sweepstakes, but lost out on him as well to Los Angeles.
While this is the case, the Dodgers phenom acknowledged that he was “strongly considering” Toronto at the time, per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.
“Roki Sasaki’s first impression of Toronto was a good one, good enough that he was ‘strongly considering’ signing with the Blue Jays and ‘definitely’ close to a deal with the team he’s now facing in the World Series,” Nicholson-Smith wrote Thursday.
Nicholson-Smith noted that Sasaki actually decided between the Blue Jays and the Dodgers.
“But while it’s cool enough to warrant a closed roof, it’s nowhere near as cold as it was in January, when the Blue Jays invited Sasaki to Toronto for a multi-day visit over the course of which they attempted to recruit him,” Nicholson-Smith wrote. “A years-long process involving all levels of the organization culminated here at Rogers Centre when front office officials pitched Sasaki on their player development resource, and players Bo Bichette, Daulton Varsho, and Chad Green showed up as a gesture of support. That pitch made an impression on the right-hander, who ended up choosing between the Dodgers and Blue Jays.”
Sasaki didn’t have an explosive rookie year. He finished the campaign with a 4.46 ERA across 10 regular-season appearances. But, he’s just 23 years old and there was a time in which he was actually regarded as a better prospect than fellow Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto in part because he was coming over to the big leagues at a younger age. Sasaki pitched for the Chiba Lotte Marines for four years and had a 2.02 ERA in 69 total appearances.
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