Jasen Vinlove/Miami Marlins/Getty Images
Japanese pitching sensation Rōki Sasaki announced on Instagram that he has chosen to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 23-year-old Sasaki is a two-time NPB All-Star who pitched four seasons for the Chiba Lotte Marines. He went 30-15 with a 2.02 ERA (0.88 WHIP) while posting an 11.4 K/9 rate over 69 games.
Sasaki made international waves in 2022 for pitching a 19-strikeout perfect game.
Three years later, he’ll be in the Dodgers’ rotation as L.A. looks for back-to-back World Series titles.
The Dodgers were World Series favorites before adding Sasaki, but they’ve created a bigger gap between them and the rest of the league with this latest move.
Per DraftKings Sportsbook, the Dodgers are +320 favorites to win the World Series. That gives them 23.81 percent implied odds, per Action Network. The Atlanta Braves are next at +800, followed by the New York Yankees at +850.
Needless to say, fans and analysts alike are hyping the Dodgers right now.
Bruce Kuntz @Bnicklaus7
Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Shohei Ohtani
Blake Snell
Tyler Glasnow
Roki Sasaki
The #Dodgers have five aces
WORLD SERIES CHAMPION ANDREW @Dodgersdryphone
The Dodgers front office after signing Blake Snell, re-signing Teoscar Hernandez, re-signing Blake Treinen, signing Hyeseong Kim, signing Michael Conforto and signing Roki Sasaki pic.twitter.com/BBkC5WfxQY
sco @69sco_
The year is 2050, the Dodgers have won 26 straight World Series, no other team in the NL has had an All-Star in 12 seasons, the Dodgers have just signed Mike Trout Jr to a 2.3 billion dollar contract(deferred over 10 years) https://t.co/BxUTF8Oivv
The Dodgers open their season on March 18 in Tokyo for a two-game series against the Chicago Cubs.
