Padres GM Breaks Silence on Failed Roki Sasaki Pursuit

On Friday afternoon, the offseason became even drearier for a San Diego Padres organization that has experienced little success since making a first-round exit from the playoffs. Roki Sasaki announced he would be joining the Los Angeles Dodgers via his Instagram.

What was even more stunning than Sasaki’s decision was the fact that the Padres were reportedly out of the race by Friday morning, leaving the Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays as the top two finalists.

It was another loss for the Padres and another win for their rivals, the Dodgers.

“Really proud of the group,” Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller said Friday night of San Diego’s recruiting of Sasaki, via Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune. “Really thorough and complete job.”

At the start of the offseason, there was a strong belief Sasaki was destined for the Dodgers. The impression was so strong, MLB was forced to investigate if an unwritten deal between the Japanese phenom and reigning World Series champions existed. The league found no wrongdoing.

But as the winter unfolded, there were many who believed Sasaki would rather join a smaller-market team as a young, developing pitcher. Especially with Yu Darvish in the rotation, the Padres appeared to be the perfect fit.

However, like Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Sasaki did not follow Darvish to San Diego.

“At the end of the day, we want players that want to be here,” Preller said. “We’ll move forward and look to add to a really talented roster.”

There is some soul-searching that needs to be done. The Dodgers could not outbid any team for Sasaki, this competition was about teams giving the 23-year-old their best pitch.

Why did the Padres fail to convince San Diego was the best option for Sasaki? This question could have a number of answers, and could largely be a result of Sasaki’s own desires and by no means the fault of the Padres.

However, there are a number of questions which remain unanswered with less than a month until spring training opens. The Padres have not signed any major league free agents or made any trades, but the team has several roster needs to address.

“We’ve seen offseasons where we’ve been really aggressive and been able to line up on moves early in the offseason and other years, like last year, where it was later in the process,” Preller said. “… We’ve got a really good core and good foundation we like a lot, and we’ve got some needs as well.”

A long, cold winter in San Diego continues.