According to Jeff Sanders, the Padres are among the teams who have met with Japanese star pitcher Roki Sasaki.
It had not been previously reported that a meeting had taken place but you’d have to be living under a rock to think that San Diego wasn’t going to be one of the teams.
The meeting took place in Los Angeles—the same location as Sasaki’s other meetings. His agent, Joel Wolfe, says the 23-year-old is back in Japan deciding on his next steps.
One of the next steps could include a visit to Petco Park for him to see the environment he’d be working in for the next six years. I’d say Petco would be a pretty nice office for him.
Bob Nightengale reported Sasaki requested that no team include any of their players in the recruiting visits, so we can assume that Yu Darvish was not present. I’ll be shocked if we find out there isn’t any communication between them though.
Sasaki has looked up to Darvish and would fill arguably the Padres biggest need: starting rotation help.
Joe Musgrove is sidelined with Tommy John surgery rehab and right now the only three pitchers we can put in pen in the rotation are Darvish, Dylan Cease and Michael King.
A.J. Preller has yet to make a major league trade/free agent signing this winter.
Fingers and toes crossed. To pitch in “pitcher friendly” Petco, and to have full crowds in attendance, would be a plus that he must be considering. Petco…one of the most architecturally fun places for baseball. How about the most pleasant weather to play in, too? I think it would be more interesting to be a thorn in the Dodgers hide than to be just another cog in the LA machinery.