Tyler Glasnow’s Dodgers recruiting pitch to Roki Sasaki won't banish lingering fears

Roki Sasaki's free agency seems to be in its final hours, and he's whittled his options down to the Los Angeles Dodgers and, shockingly, the Toronto Blue Jays.

While there's no official confirmation that the Padres are out, they signed Dominican free agent Carlos Alvarez for $1 million from their bonus pool on Jan. 17, while LA and Toronto continue to try to stockpile money for Sasaki.

The Dodgers can keep doing that while they wait, but the bulk of their pitch to Sasaki has already been made. They held a second in-person meeting in LA on Jan. 14 featuring some of their biggest stars, and now it's just a matter of preparing to give him everything they can and hoping they stated their case well enough.

Tyler Glasnow wasn't a part of the Dodgers' in-person pitch, but during an an appearance on Foul Territory, he said he had spoken to Sasaki on the phone. He said he'd relayed to Sasaki, "If one of your main goals is to become the best pitcher you can possibly be, development-wise, scouting report-wise, this is the place for you."

Glasnow never would've said anything different, but the Dodgers' bad track record with keeping pitchers — bought and homegrown — healthy doesn't exactly speak in favor of that argument.

Tyler Glasnow's pitch to Roki Sasaki ignores Dodgers' struggles with rotation injuries

Glasnow himself was victim of the injury plague that took down almost the entire Dodgers' rotation last season; he was on and off the IL throughout the later months of the season and only pitched 134 innings (still a career high). Yoshinobu Yamamoto missed two months, Walker Buehler started late and then still ended up missing more time, and rookies Kyle Hurt, River Ryan, and Emmet Sheehan all underwent season-ending surgeries before they could really get off the ground.

It wouldn't be surprising if these injuries are giving Sasaki some pause (and hopefully the Dodgers addressed it, and their strategy for prevention going forward, during one of their meetings).

Although Sasaki will be coming to whichever team he signs with with a lot more experience than your typical international prospect, he'll also have the face the same learning curve Yamamoto did when he transferred over to MLB. There are a myriad of differences between MLB and NPB, right down to the baseball pitchers throw, and it wouldn't be surprising if Sasaki stumbles a little when he debuts in MLB. Even though the Dodgers tried to give Yamamoto an extra day of rest between his starts, he wasn't exempt from injury in his rookie season.

If the Dodgers get him, it's likely they'll treat him with kid gloves during his first year. And if they lose starters at the same clip as they did last year, then maybe the organization actually deserves to get clowned for it.