Roki Sasaki’s free agency will always be remembered as if no team except the Los Angeles Dodgers had a chance, but there was a small window on Friday when it looked like the Toronto Blue Jays were up to something.
In 11:30 a.m. Eastern TimeThe Blue Jays announced they had acquired Cleveland Guardians outfielder Myles Straw for cash and international bonus pool money in exchange for a player to be named later or cash.
At first glance, the exchange made little sense. Straw is one of those players who essentially has negative value. The 30-year-old is a brilliant outfielder, but an anemic bat has prevented him from becoming a regular MLB player, to the point that he spent all of last season in Triple-A, where he posted a .651 OPS. And because of an ill-advised five-year contract the Guardians gave him, he is still owed $13.8 million, plus the money needed to buy out his club options for 2026 and 2027.
The Guardians at least sent $3.75 million to help offset Straw’s deal, but that still meant the Blue Jays were still agreeing to pay $11 million for a no-bat, all-gloves player, a type of player they already had plenty of.
The only way it could make sense was if the $2 million the Blue Jays acquired were used. That is, sweetening the pot for Sasaki, who was required by international free agent rules to receive a bonus that represented a fraction of his true value. The trade expanded the Blue Jays’ international fund to approximately $8.3 million.
No one knew anything for sure outside of Sasaki’s camp (and maybe the Dodgers front office, if some people are to be believed), but one theory went like this:
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The Blue Jays executed a trade that made no sense without Sasaki
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The Blue Jays would not make a trade like that without having an agreement with Sasaki
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The Blue Jays must have a deal brewing with Sasaki
That would have made sense if the Blue Jays had operated like a normal team. Instead, Sasaki announced he would sign with the Dodgers hours later, leaving a big question about what exactly Toronto was doing.
On Saturday, The Athletic answered that question by reporting that the Blue Jays made the trade without Sasaki’s approval. Instead, “they seemed determined to show Sasaki that they were willing to do whatever they could to get him” after feeling the Dodgers were the favorites.
Rival executives didn’t have a very good opinion of how the team accomplished it:
It was a dubious strategy, especially without a deal in place, leading one rival executive to say, “My phone has been blowing up all day with ‘wtf Jays.'” An executive still involved in the process took note that the Blue Jays added to the pool of money they could offer Sasaki, but took some solace in the fact that Wolfe had given similar instructions to the remaining clubs. But the Blue Jays’ motivation was clear: They hoped their push for Sasaki would end differently than their failed attempts at Ohtani and Juan Soto, which only upset the fan base and further framed the franchise as perpetual runners-up.
That incident with the Shohei Ohtani plane really left a mark on that franchise.
The Athletic reports that the other two finalists, the Dodgers and San Diego Padres, had their own deals prepared, but (and this is critical) they did not No They pulled the trigger until they were told that Sasaki was signing with them. San Diego was reportedly willing to make a trade to increase their bonus pool to the maximum 160%, while the Dodgers ended up executing deals with the Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds to acquire a few additional million dollars to boost their pool. bonus, at the expense of lesser prospects.
If each of the prospects the Dodgers released (outfielders Dylan Campbell and Arnaldo Lantigua) are assessed to be worth less than $11 million, the Dodgers somehow ended up making only the second and third most expensive trades to accommodate Sasaki. Because, and this really needs to be repeated to understand, the Blue Jays traded for an $11 million replacement-level player just to convince some guy they wanted him. It’s the baseball equivalent of getting a tattoo to convince someone you really want to date them.
It’s one thing to miss Ohtani or Juan Soto. It’s another thing to pay for the privilege, which is what Toronto did this time. We shouldn’t rule out Straw having a bounce-back year in Toronto’s outfield in 2025, but there’s no denying that he landed in Toronto by misadventure.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers reportedly pressed full-field in their second-deepest meeting with Sasaki, with appearances from Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Will Smith, Tommy Edman, president of baseball. operations Andrew Friedman, general manager Brandon Games and minority owner Magic Johnson, who gave Sasaki, apparently a huge basketball fan, a signed jersey.
The group reportedly moved to co-owner Peter Guber’s home in Bel Air, where a private chef served sushi as the conversation continued. Not long before Sasaki announced his decision, Ohtani informed team brass via text message and said, “We got it.”
An overarching narrative surrounding the entire Sasaki situation was how different the Dodgers are from any other team, and that apparently extended to the practical aspects of the process as well.