The Japanese phenom will join countrymen Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in blue, but this addition isn’t about the Dodgers bludgeoning the rest of the sport with their financial might.

So now what? Roki Sasaki was the Padres' Plan A this winter. They hoped desperately to woo the ace Japanese right-hander as an anchor of their starting rotation for years to come. They made that much known from the moment he was posted last month.

The addition of Sasaki only increases the urgency for the Dodgers to do better in preventing pitching injuries.

Roki Sasaki burst onto the scene in Japan as a 19-year-old in 2021, posting a 1.84 ERA over 16 starts. He bounded onto the world stage when he joined a star-studded Japanese rotation that included Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

Roki Sasaki, the prized 23-year-old Japanese right-hander, has signed with the world champion Los Angeles Dodgers, he announced Friday.

After much speculation, the hard-throwing Japanese pitcher posts his decision on Instagram, choosing to play with countrymen Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Los Angeles.

With ownership turmoil and no offseason additions, the Padres must figure out how to contend without the Japanese phenom they coveted.

A 23-year-old right-hander whose fastball tops 100 miles per hour, Sasaki will join fellow Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a move many baseball executives have long expected.

The Los Angeles Dodgers aren't ruining baseball following their latest Roki Sasaki signing — they're just better at it than everyone else in MLB.

The mighty Dodgers, that Evil Empire on the West Coast, have struck again, signing Japanese phenom Rōki Sasaki.

Spring training is less than a month away, but there is still plenty of MLB offseason business to tackle. A handful of notable players remain on the free-agent market, including Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso and Anthony Santander.