NAPA — Round three o’clock on Friday afternoon, Roki Sasaki introduced he was signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Lower than 24 hours later, the San Francisco Giants hosted the primary leg of their FanFest Tour in Napa to garner pleasure for the approaching season.
Discuss timing.
For the Giants, Sasaki’s determination to affix the Dodgers particularly stings as a result of San Francisco’s brass wasn’t shy about expressing its curiosity.
On the Winter Conferences, president of baseball operations Buster Posey and normal supervisor Zack Minasian each had raving overview for “The Monster of the Reiwa Era.” Posey, specifically, described the potential of Sasaki pitching for the Giants within the playoffs in entrance of a raucous Oracle Park. These hopes had been dashed, although, when Minasian revealed throughout Justin Verlander’s introductory press convention that the Giants had been out of the operating. Days later, Sasaki declared he was certain for Southern California.
Los Angeles, unsurprisingly, isn’t simply the heavy favourite to win the NL West, however to turn into the primary back-to-back champions for the reason that New York Yankees. For the Giants who attended Saturday’s FanFest, they’re not taking a look at this season as a foregone conclusion.
“It doesn’t matter to us. We have to take care of our business.”
Sasaki’s determination to affix the defending World Sequence champions embittered numerous baseball followers, usually, and Giants followers, particularly. Some followers went so far as to match Sasaki signing with the Dodgers to Kevin Durant becoming a member of the Golden State Warriors in 2017.
The Dodgers now boast certainly one of baseball’s most proficient rotations with Sasaki within the fold, a unit that may also characteristic Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow with Tony Gonsolin, Dustin Could and Landon Knack within the combine. Clayton Kershaw continues to be a free agent and recovering from offseason surgical procedures, however he’ll probably be alongside for the trip as effectively. That rotation compliments a lineup that options anchored by three MVPs (and sure Corridor of Famers) in Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, in addition to All-Stars Teoscar Hernández, Will Smith and Max Muncy and newly-signed tremendous utility man Hyeseong Kim.
“They’re going to have a good rotation. It’s going to be a tough matchup, but I think our hitters will be well-prepared, and hopefully, we can catch them on a World Series slump and then go get our ring this year. You can’t count us out against anybody.”
Initially Revealed: January 18, 2025 at 3:52 PM PST
