The San Diego Padres have been one of the biggest losers of the MLB offseason, failing to land any quality free agents and further slashing their payroll as the rest of the NL West gets stronger. San Diego’s lone hope was to sign starting pitcher Roki Sasaki, but even outbidding the Los Angeles Dodgers wasn’t enough.
Sasaki, age 23, was everything the Padres dreamed of landing this offseason. He was one of the best baseball players outside the United States, becoming one of the top MLB free agents this winter. More importantly, because of MLB’s signing restrictions on players under the age of 25, he’d cost very little to sign compared to other top free agents.
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- San Diego Padres payroll 2025 (FanGraphs): $208 million
Better yet for San Diego, Sasaki preferred to sign with a team on the West Coast and he has a close relationship with Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish. It’s why entering mid-January, as his decision neared, the Padres and Dodgers were the co-favorites to land him.
However, Sasaki ultimately signed with Los Angeles and received a $6 million signing bonus. San Diego learned it was ruled out well before the announcement was made, a disastrous end result that has essentially made the Padres one of the biggest losers in MLB this winter. Unfortunately, it seems even worse now with more insight.
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According to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, Will Samon and Dennis Lin, the Padres informed Sasaki’s representatives that they were willing to offer him just over $10 million as a signing bonus. It would’ve required multiple trades and used up the entirety of their international bonus pool money, but the club was willing to do it to land Sasaki.
“The Padres told Sasaki’s group that they were prepared to trade to max out their bonus pool, according to a league source, and offer the Japanese pitcher the entire sum, a little more than $10 million.”
The Athletic on the San Diego Padres’ final Roki Sasaki contract offer
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Instead, he took less money to play for the Dodgers. It forced San Diego to quickly pivot to other top international prospects, none of whom are viewed as being on nearly the same level as Sasaki. While the moves will help the Padres’ farm system, San Diego appears destined for a slide in 2025 that could get even worse in future years.
