Anonymous MLB executive poll predicts Dodgers battling NL West rival for Roki Sasaki

The last time Roki Sasaki's agent Joel Wolfe gave clubs and fans a glimpse into his client's thought process going into free agency, nothing he said made the Los Angeles Dodgers seem like the right fit.

On top of a rumor that Sasaki might be inclined to go to a smaller market team for a soft landing in MLB, Wolfe said that the Padres made sense as a fit, that a team having other Japanese players on the roster wasn't necessarily a selling point. He also alluded to an unwillingness from Sasaki to engage in a market with a heavy media presence.

None of that spells success for the Dodgers, but they're still thought of as the favorite to sign him. Despite Jim Bowden's repeated argument that Sasaki wouldn't be able to make much money as a Dodger with Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto already taking up most of the air in the room (which feels patently false anyway), the Dodgers have been keeping their eyes on Sasaki since he was in high school, and that relationship could be a deciding factor.

MLB polled front office execs about their thoughts on where Sasaki would end up, and the Dodgers won out with 11 votes. However, the pesky Padres, who are "quietly confident" they'll get Sasaki, came in second with seven.

Dodgers are still thought of as favorites for Roki Sasaki, but Padres are expected to be in the mix

The Giants and Rangers also received one vote from, if we had to guess, very hopeful and perhaps naive representatives from both of those front offices themselves.

The Dodgers and Padres are the frontrunners here, even though no one has an excuse not to at least try to talk to him. Even the White Sox are preparing a presentation, and the usual suspects (Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Blue Jays) will also be contenders. But, even if Wolfe said that having a Japanese mentor on whatever team he goes to doesn't actually mean much to Sasaki, the Dodgers have Ohtani and Yamamoto and the Padres have Yu Darvish, so it might mean a little.

Sasaki is widely expected to sign after the international free agent period resets on Jan. 15, and before his 45-day window is up on Jan. 23. The Dodgers have a little less than $5.15 million of bonus pool money to spend through basically the entirety of 2025, and they may use it all on Sasaki and call the rest of next year's class a wash. But he may have the potential to be even better than Yamamoto, so it'd probably be worth it.