Did Dodgers fall behind Padres, Blue Jays on Roki Sasaki with latest update?

On Jan. 13, Roki Sasaki eliminated all but three teams in the race to sign him as he whittles his options down.

The Dodgers, Padres, and Blue Jays all survived the culling and remain in the mix as the clock ticks down to the Jan. 23 deadline when Sasaki must sign if he hopes to play in MLB this year. His window officially opens on Jan. 15, but his agent has suggested we might have to wait for a signing in the latter half of the week.

It always felt like it was going to come down to the Dodgers and Padres, homes to Shohei Ohtani and Yu Darvish, but the Blue Jays are a nagging dark horse in the mix. They were the mystery eighth team Sasaki held an in-person meeting with before the holidays, but this wasn't revealed until well after New Year's Day.

The Blue Jays have become latest laughingstock of the league when it comes to whiffing on free agents (the new Giants, if you will); they've been finalists for or heavily interested in Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes, Anthony Santander, and Gleyber Torres, but have come up with just Jeff Hoffman, who failed two physicals with the Braves and Orioles before eventually finding a team that decided to take the risk anyway. That means they have no chance at Sasaki, right?

Maybe not. Sasaki has returned to the States and has held two more in-person meetings with the Padres and Blue Jays, but not the Dodgers.

Roki Sasaki holds more in-person meetings with finalists, but not the Dodgers

If it's true that Sasaki won't sign until closer to Jan. 20, then there's still time for him to hold a second in-person meeting with the Dodgers, and one where they can pull out all the stops. He specifically requested players not be present at initial meetings, but that changed during this second round, with Darvish and Manny Machado playing key roles in the Padres' courting.

The Dodgers would immediately throw Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto at Sasaki if they were given the opportunity, and they'd probably have both of them toting around the Commissioner's Trophy all day for good measure. For the moment, though, it seems the Dodgers are on the back burner here.

Sasaki's agent Joel Wolfe hinted during Winter Meetings that Sasaki might want to go a smaller-market team and not want to pitch for a club that will invite media spectacle, and the Padres and Blue Jays both tick those boxes in different ways. Hopefully, the Dodgers are just keeping their second meeting quiet or have it on the books for the coming week.