Yankees Duped Into Giving ‘Proprietary’ Roki Sasaki Info to Dodgers, Olney Says

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Andrew Friedman (l) and Roki Sasaki (r).

On Wednesday the Los Angeles Dodgers held a press conference to introduce their latest high-profile international signing, 23-year-old Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki. Baseball America celebrated the occasion by naming Sasaki the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball on the publication’s new list of the game’s top 100 prospects.

The press conference came five days after Sasaki himself announced his decision to sign with the reigning World Series champions on his Instagram account, ending a months-long process in which a reported 20 teams made sales pitches to the mound phenom whose fastball has been clocked as high as 102 mph, attempting to persuade him to join their respective clubs.

Sasaki is also believed to have met in person with seven teams, asking them specific questions about their organizations and their pitching development programs. But the Dodgers were always considered the favorites to sign Sasaki, and when after his lengthy period of supposedly deliberating over his decision he signed with the team where most baseball observers believed he would end up, suspicions arose around MLB that the process was rigged.

Baseball Team Execs Believe Sasaki Process Was a Sham

“There were several front offices that believed there was a pre-cut deal between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Roki Sasaki before this process started and before the window came where you’re allowed to negotiate with the player,” former MLB general manager Jim Bowden said on the Foul Territory podcast Friday.

MLB said it had conducted an investigation into the Sasaki signing process prior to Sasaki’s posting by his Japan Pacific League team the Chiba Lotte Marines in December. According to MLB, the investigation found no wrongdoing by the Dodgers, the Marines, or Sasaki’s camp.

Needless to say, the report of MLB’s investigation did little to allay suspicions that the fix was in. Now, new allegations have emerged that not only was Sasaki landing in Los Angeles a predetermined result, but the process may have been used to extract proprietary information from other teams — including the Dodgers’ 2024 World Series rival New York Yankees. That information was then passed along to the Dodgers once Sasaki announced his intention to sign with Los Angeles, according to the allegations.

The allegations were made public by longtime baseball insider journalist Buster Olney on the Monday edition of his ESPN Baseball Tonight podcast.

Sasaki Asked Teams to Help Fix His Fastball Velocity

The “proprietary information,” according to Olney, concerned the drop in fastball velocity Sasaki has experienced over the past season. According to a report by The Athletic, Sasaki’s fastball velocity averaged 98.9 mph in the 2023 season — but dropped to 96.9 in 2024. He also lost movement on the fastball and on his breaking pitches.

“What Sasaki was asking teams to do — his camp was asking teams to do — is give us an evaluation of my fastball. Tell me what you would do to help me. So all these teams did that. All that information, from what I understand, was taped in this presentation the teams were doing,” Olney said on the podcast.

“He chose the Dodgers, which means all these teams basically handed over proprietary information to Sasaki and the Dodgers,” Olney continued. “All the man hours put in as he chose the Dodgers. That has made so many people angry about how this played out.”

Olney said that executives around baseball “don’t believe” the results of the MLB investigation that supposedly exonerated the Dodgers and Sasaki of turning his recruitment process into a charade.

“They don’t believe it was ever on the up and up,” Olney said. “And, man, are they mad about how this played out.”