Dodgers on the verge of good news as Padres raise white flag on Roki Sasaki chase

It's hard to give the San Diego Padres credit for anything, but they gave their pitch to Roki Sasaki their best shot.

Reports suggested they threw everything at him in their wooing attempts; they invited him into a player's home, they had Yu Darvish, Manny Machado, and Joe Musgrove host him in San Diego, they got him in Padres gear for a workout at Petco.

The Padres, who have done nothing this offseason except sign Martín Maldonado (a terrible decision if there ever was one) really needed this win, but early reports on Friday suggest that they're going to lose out again.

Francys Romero reported that the Padres had been told they were out on Sasaki, and MLB Network picked up the news within minutes. San Diego has prepared to make other international signings with its now-free bonus pool money when, just a day ago, it tried to make trades for more money to give Sasaki.

That leaves the Dodgers and Blue Jays in the running for the young flamethrower. The Blue Jays still have the potential to stage the upset of the year here, but there's been no word from Toronto about the team trying to stockpile bonus pool money or delay international signings, so it really looks like it's going to be the Dodgers.

Dodgers, Blue Jays last teams standing as Padres are forced out of Roki Sasaki chase

It is shocking that the Padres have apparently heard a 'no' from Sasaki before the Blue Jays, when everyone expected it to come down to a battle between Los Angeles and San Diego. There was a fair amount of sentiment that even leaned more firmly in the Padres' favor than the Dodgers', given Sasaki's connection to Darvish and San Diego's quieter media presence compared to the Dodgers.'

Now, we're back in an LA/Toronto war that harkens back to Shohei Ohtani's decision in 2023. It's unclear exactly how in the Blue Jays were when Jon Morosi tweeted out his infamous, erroneous report that Ohtani had boarded a plane to Toronto, but the Dodgers and Blue Jays seemed like the final two back then, too.

It would be a heartbreaker for the Dodgers if the Blue Jays actually manage to come out on top this time, but at least their fiercest division rival already had their hopes crushed. Cue all of the disgusted tweets from Padres fans about looking forward to seeing Sasaki get lit up at Petco. At least he won't be wearing brown and gold.