Roki Sasaki says he “strongly considered” signing with Blue Jays

Tonight, the Blue Jays welcome the Dodgers on the heels of Game 1 of the World Series. It's going to be a good show, I think.

Obviously, a lot of attention is focused on Shohei Ohtani in Toronto. It's only natural: he's quite a player and came very close to signing with the Queen City club two years ago.

John Schneider even joked about wanting back the Blue Jays cap the club gave him when he visited the Blue Jays in Dunedin as a free agent.

But he's not the only Japanese in this position.

Roki Sasaki, the starting pitcher who was injured during the season and has since settled in as the Dodgers' closer , had also strongly considered the idea of getting along with the Blue Jays a year ago, when he arrived in North America. L.A. and Toronto were the finalists

Sasaki was asked yesterday if he had come close to signing with Toronto last winter, and he said yes. He says he “strongly considered” signing with the Blue Jays and can't even explain why he chose the Dodgers in the end.

Roki Sasaki said he was “strongly considering” the #BlueJays and was “definitely” close to signing with Toronto.

“It's actually really hard to express why I eventually chose the Dodgers."

– Mitch Bannon (@MitchBannon) October 24, 2025

I think anyone can say why he chose the Dodgers. But his politeness honors him.

I don't doubt that he came close to choosing Toronto because otherwise, the club wouldn't have acquired Myles Straw's contract from the Guardians to get their hands on international bonus money to give to the Japanese. But it makes sense to see him with Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, in the end.

This content was created with the help of AI.