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By Jon Paul Hoornstra
Contributing Sports Writer
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As part of the Dodgers' offseason pitch to Roki Sasaki, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said he asked current players to submit short recruiting videos if they had something they wanted to share with the Japanese right-hander.
Speaking to Jayson Stark and Doug Glanville on the "Starkville" podcast, Friedman said he didn't give players a script to follow.
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"We probably had 19 videos or something," Friedman said. "It struck me how many of them, without any kind of script or prompting, they said 'hey, the Dodgers really take care of players. They really help make players better. They really take care of families, and I want you to be our teammate so we can go win more.'
"It was amazing how many people had those same message points, and it was incredible."
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It's an uplifting message for any player to hear. But the Dodgers couldn't have known until Friday just how deeply the team's treatment of families might resonate with Sasaki.
In an Instagram post, Sasaki announced that he had recently gotten married — a secret he had kept not only from the public but from the team as well. Even manager Dave Roberts was among those who told reporters in the Dodgers' spring training camp that the news of Sasaki's marriage came as a surprise.
To a single man whose family lives an ocean away, how the team treats a player's family might have been an afterthought. To Sasaki, the Dodgers' recruiting pitches couldn't have been crafted any better — even if they had known he was married.
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Sasaki chose the Dodgers' bid over those of two other finalists, the San Diego Padres, and Toronto Blue Jays, when he signed in January.
In his final NPB season, Sasaki went 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA in 18 starts for the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2024, with 129 strikeouts in 111 innings.
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By leaving Japan at age 23, Sasaki decided to forgo the opportunity to sign the kind of nine-figure contract countryman Yoshinobu Yamamoto got two years ago from the Dodgers. Yamamoto's $325 million, 12-year contract set an all-time record for any pitcher.
"It was a very difficult decision," Sasaki wrote on his Instagram account of signing with the Dodgers, "but I will do my best to make it the right decision when I look back after my baseball career."
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