There has been no shortage of speculation that Roki Sasaki's decision to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers wasn't the result of a meticulous free-agent process, but rather a handshake deal made months or even years earlier.

Japanese star Roki Sasaki signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he announced on Instagram. The 23-year-old right-hander with a sizzling fastball and deadly splitter joins Samurai Japan teammates Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto with the World Series champion Dodgers. The jokes wrote themselves.

Over the last year, there had been speculation around MLB that the Dodgers had a possible handshake agreement in place with pitcher Roki Sasaki.

Roki Sasaki is joining the Los Angeles Dodgers! After the Chiba Lotte Mariners of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball announced they planned to post their 23-year-old star pitcher in November, he immediately became the No.

The Padres will sign left-hander and international amateur free agent Carlos Alvarez, according to The Athletic's Will Sammon. That's an intriguing development given that the Padres are considered one of the three finalists (alongside the Dodgers and Blue Jays) in the running for Japanese ace Roki Sasaki.

Japanese ace Roki Sasaki has whittled his list of teams down to two. On Friday, Cuban baseball reporter Francys Romero reported that the San Diego Padres are “out” on the 23-year-old right-hander. That leaves the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays.