Tyler Glasnow wasn’t around to help the Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series in October – he was recuperating from a sprained elbow – but the veteran pitcher is trying to help them win the offseason.
In an interview with Foul Territory on Thursday, Glasnow revealed how he helped the Dodgers recruit free agent Roki Sasaki. The 23-year-old free agent from Japan has yet to make his decision, but must sign with an MLB team by Jan. 23.
“I talked to him on the phone,” Glasnow told Foul Territory. “We have the same agent [Joel Wolfe]. I was asking him, just shooting the (breeze), ‘you should come to the Dodgers’ and all that stuff. He’s relatively quiet. It was a quick phone call. I wasn’t expecting to get much out of it.”
Glasnow, 31, noted he was not able to be part of the Dodgers’ in-person meeting with Sasaki on Tuesday. But he’s following the saga of the coveted pitcher, who was posted by his Japanese club in December and is expected to make an immediate impact on whatever team signs him.
The Blue Jays, Dodgers and Padres are the three finalists to sign Sasaki.
“You’ve got (Yu) Darvish in San Diego; I know they’re pretty close,” Glasnow said. “I know a lot of people look up to Darvish. I heard he likes the Blue Jays a lot. I heard he likes the Dodgers … I just have heard those three teams, and it’s just kind of up to him to decide.”
What was Glasnow’s pitch to Sasaki to join the Dodgers?
“I said to him, I haven’t played for the other two organizations but if really – if one of your main goals is to become the best pitcher you can possibly be, like development-wise and everything, scouting report-wise, all that stuff, this is the place for you,” he said. “If your motivation is money, winning, or whatever, I think this is the best place to grow as a baseball player … That was my message.”
When he was 20, Sasaki threw a 19-strikeout perfect game for the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2022. In his next start, he threw eight more perfect innings in a row. In the 2023 World Baseball Classic, his fastball sat at 100 mph.
Last season, Sasaki went 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA in 18 starts for Chiba Lotte, with 129 strikeouts in 111 innings.
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