As soon as the news broke about the signing of Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki, there was a flurry of comments on social media that, in truth, are not at all disproportionate. They reflect a general feeling among baseball fans in the United States who look unfavorably on the ‘monopolization’ of the market, at least that of Japanese players, by the World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Did Roki Sasaki let himself be swayed by the Ohtani factor?
The Japanese free agent pitcher was coveted by several Major League Baseball franchises, including the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and finally the San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays. But in a turn of events, which was not too difficult to predict, he decided on the World Series champions, where his countryman, the stellar and sensational Shohei Ohtani, also plays.
Sasaki announced the long-awaited news via a post on his Instagram account in which a Dodgers cap was seen placed on a seat at the Chavez Ravine, and with this move the Los Angeles team has the cream of the crop and of course a dream rotation on the mound, after their million-dollar deals with Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Freddie Freeman and Blake Snell.
The furious criticism of the fans
The public’s reactions were not long in coming and regardless of the arrival of the 23-year-old baseball player from the Chibba Lotte Marines, they took to social networks to ‘blast’ both the Dodgers and Major League Baseball for allowing them to make this move, which they accused of being ‘cynical’.
Statements such as “baseball is broken” or that “MLB is a bad joke” accompanied several reflections on the imbalance that this entails and that is reflected year after year in the ‘Big Top’ and that this does not benefit the league and its growth outside of Los Angeles, disregarding the huge market for a sport that is played in every corner of the United States.
The final blow came with a comment-sentence, which, although it shows that he is not exactly a fan of the Dodgers, does leave the matter open to reflection: “Rest in peace baseball as we knew it”.
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