In a way, the financial aspect is even rosier than that (from the Dodgers' perspective), as typically with a prospect of this caliber, a team might feel pressure to sign him to an early extension. With Sasaki, there's no such pressure: Any talk of an extension now would be viewed as circumventing the transfer rules. It's almost too good to be true.

Teams were eliminated by Sasaki until it was down to three finalists: the Dodgers, Padres and Blue Jays. Sasaki opted to follow in the footsteps of Blake Snell, Teoscar Hernandez, Michael Conforto and Hyeseong Kim this offseason and choose the Dodgers above other offers.

Ohtani reportedly played a huge role in the Dodgers' recruitment of Sasaki, the 23-year-old pitching phenom, who posted a 29-15 record and 2.10 ERA in 64 appearances in the Nippon Professional Baseball. Ohtani also recently revealed his message was to Sasaki just before the latter picked the Dodgers.

The starting pitcher for the San Diego Padres, Yu Darvish, admitted he holds no grudge against his fellow countryman Roki Sasaki for choosing the Los Angeles Dodgers to fulfill his dream of debuting as a pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB).

A Los Angeles Dodgers division rival didn't mince words when commenting on serious accusations about the star pitcher joining the team.