The Dodgers breaking baseball with Roki Sasaki signing makes the Angels look foolish

Roki Sasaki is a member of the Dodgers because of course he is

World Baseball Classic Semifinals: Mexico v Japan
World Baseball Classic Semifinals: Mexico v Japan | Gene Wang/GettyImages

There are Goliaths and then there are the Los Angeles Dodgers. If the Dodgers put their minds to acquiring a player, they land that player 100% of the time. The most recent example? They just signed international superstar, Roki Sasaki, who many viewed as the best non-Soto free agent. ESPN's Jeff Passan wrote that once Sasaki was posted, there was going to be the "fiercest 30-team recruitment since Ohtani." Not true. It was the Dodgers all along.

Sasaki's agent, Joel Wolfe, really tried to throw people off the scent with this quote:

"I think that there’s an argument to be made that a smaller, mid-market team might be more beneficial for him as a soft landing coming from Japan, given what he’s been through and not having an enjoyable experience with the media. It might be — I’m not saying it will be — I don’t know how he’s going to view it, but it might be beneficial for him to be in a smaller market."
Joel Wolfe

So, that was a lie. The Dodgers were always Sasaki's number one choice, no matter what his agent or national pundits who defend the Dodgers at every turn say. They are so good at courting free agents that it honestly feels like tampering. There probably was tampering, too. The news that Sasaki narrowed down his prospective teams to the Dodgers, Blue Jays, and Padres was laughable...it was going to be the Dodgers all along.

The Angels were never in on Sasaki, they couldn't even get a meeting with him. They just added a full-time scout before last season, plus they never had any type of relationship Sasaki like Billy Eppler did with Shohei Ohtani. The reigning champions are adding another top-of-the-line starter on a minor league contract to pair with Ohtani, while the 99-loss Angels have not made a significant move for some time now and continue to wallow in obscurity.

Maybe the Dodgers will throw the Angels a bone and trade them one of their 19 starting pitcher options? Here are the current options for the Dodgers' six-man rotation: Shohei Ohtani, Roki Sasaki, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tony Gonsolin, River Ryan, Bobby Miller, Emmet Sheehan, Landon Knack, Dustin May, Justin Wrobleski (Gavin Stone will likely miss the entire 2025 season). They are also known to utilize highly effective bullpen days. They will likely bring back Clayton Kershaw as well. Maybe the Angels can actually go out and land Jack Flaherty? Either way, things are bleak on the Angels' side of Los Angeles, and they will not catch up to the Dodgers... ever?

After the 2004 season, the new owner of the Anaheim Angels, Arte Moreno, wanted to re-brand the team. He called his squad the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in an attempt to market the team's big market sensibilities further. Looking back at that decision in 2025, it makes the team look silly. The Dodgers have lapped the Angels in every conceivable way.

The Angels are not even the Dodgers' little brother, they're more like their little third cousin. Just go back to being called the Anaheim Angels, Arte.

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