Padres latest signings suggest they're out of Roki Sasaki sweepstakes

Adding top-level international talent is never a bad thing, even if it likely means you’re not going to be signing the biggest fish in the pool.

According to multiple reports the Padres have agreed to 7-figure deals with a pair of Dominican teenagers, shortstop Jhoan De La Cruz and left-handed pitcher Carlos Alvarez. Both players are highly-regarded prospects and ranked in the Top-40 by most talent evaluators, adding depth to a minor league system that could use some more high-end talent.

However, if we read the tea leaves it’s not hard to guess those moves mean the Padres believe they are no longer in the running for Roki Sasaki.

The 23-year-old Japanese pitching phenom has reportedly narrowed his choices to the Dodgers and Blue Jays, ending a weeks-long pursuit for San Diego.

From a baseball perspective, the importance of this decision cannot be overstated. The Padres entire offseason was centered on signing Sasaki. If they landed the superstar in the making, it would give them the weapon they need to continue challenging the Dodgers’ dominance. Losing out on him is a bummer but if he chooses to go to L.A. it would be a devastating setback and likely cement L.A.’s status as World Series favorites for the next half-decade.

Sasaki features a 100-MPH fastball and one of the best split-finger pitches you’ll see anywhere in the world. He threw a perfect game with 19 strikeouts as a 20-year-old and put his devastating arsenal on display in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, helping Samurai Japan win the title.

Aside from the obvious physical traits, what makes Sasaki so valuable is he’s infinitely affordable. Since he hasn’t celebrated his 25th birthday, Sasaki is considered an amateur instead of a full-blown free agent so he’s subject to rules on international signing pools.

A talent like this at that price point is almost unheard of. The last time we saw anything like it was in 2017 when Shohei Ohtani was a 23-year-old game-changer making his way to Major League Baseball. It was widely expected that Sasaki would receive all of a team’s international pool money.

Now that the Padres are committing half of theirs to other players, they have apparently moved on, and there is still a whole lot of work to be done this offseason.

They need to add at least one more starting pitcher to a rotation that features Yu Darvish, Michael King, and Dylan Cease, who has been the subject of trade rumors but now almost certainly has to stick around for one more year. San Diego also needs to add a catcher and at least one outfielder.

It’s depressing to lose out on a top-flight talent like Sasaki. But, the business of baseball must go on.