Padres GM makes feelings known after losing Roki Sasaki to the Dodgers

Japanese ace Roki Sasaki announced on Instagram that he will be joining the Los Angeles Dodgers, forcing the San Diego Padres to pivot from their international signing plans.

It means that the pitcher will be joining countrymen Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in LA rather than Yu Darvish and Yuki Matsui in San Diego.

Despite missing out on Sasaki, Padres general manager A.J. Preller opened up on their offseason this year (via Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune):

“Really proud of the group. Really thorough and complete job. At the end of the day, we want players that want to be here. We’ll move forward and look to add to a really talented roster.

“We’ve seen offseasons where we’ve been really aggressive and been able to line up on moves early in the offseason and other years, like last year, where it was later in the process. … We’ve got a really good core and good foundation we like a lot, and we’ve got some needs as well.”

Roki Sasaki was the most coveted free agent making the move from Japan's NPB this offseason and met with several teams after being posted in the market. While his destination was initially narrowed down to LA, San Diego and Toronto, the Dodgers have come out on top once again.

The Padres have had an underwhelming winter so far, so Roki Sasaki represented the perfect addition to their roster. As an international amateur free agent, he's set to earn the league minimum of $760,000 this year, which would have been a steal for San Diego.

However, it wasn't meant to be, and their front office has already shifted their focus to a couple of Dominican teenagers who they were linked to before the offseason.

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What's next for the Dodgers after signing Roki Sasaki?

Los Angeles Dodgers have had a busy offseason, re-signing several key players and adding new ones. They re-signed Teoscar Hernandez, Tommy Edman and Blake Treinen and added Blake Snell, Michael Conforto and Hyeseong Kim.

Looking forward, it's unlikely that they will make any big moves, but they may have reason to trade one of their starting pitchers.

With Sasaki's addition, LA has a rotation of eight starting pitchers, making Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May, who are both nearing the end of their contracts, prime candidates to be traded ahead of Opening Day.