Photo: Magic Johnson Gifts Rōki Sasaki Lakers Jersey After Signing Dodgers Contract

Adam WellsJanuary 18, 2025

Christopher Pasatieri/Getty Images

Magic Johnson wasted no time in making Rōki Sasaki feel welcome in Los Angeles after the 23-year-old pitching phenom agreed to a deal with the Dodgers.

Johnson, who is part of the Dodgers’ ownership group, gifted Sasaki with an autographed No. 32 Lakers jersey.

Earvin Magic Johnson @MagicJohnsonWelcome to Los Angeles and the World Champion Los Angeles @Dodgers Roki Sasaki! It’s a great day to be a Dodger fan! 🙌🏾 pic.twitter.com/UtExlQEmP0

Sasaki announced Friday on Instagram that he was signing with the Dodgers.

The Dodgers made two separate trades with the Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds on Friday to bring in additional international bonus pool money.

Francys Romero @francysromeroFRSources: The Dodgers traded OF Arnaldo Lantigua to the Cincinnati Reds and received over $1 million in international signing bonus pool money.

Those deals allowed the Dodgers, who entered the international free-agent period with $5.1 million available, to give Sasaki a $6.5 million signing bonus, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic.

Adding Sasaki is a cherry on top of the already ridiculously-loaded sundae that is the Dodgers’ roster. They started free agency by signing Blake Snell to give them another frontline starter.

Los Angeles is going into 2025 with a rotation that will include Sasaki, Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May. Shohei Ohtani will be in that group at some point, but the Dodgers have already said he won’t be ready to pitch at the start of the regular season.

That doesn’t even include the lineup with Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández and Max Muncy.

It’s rare for a team that just won the World Series to get significantly better in the offseason, but the Dodgers appear to have done that by adding arguably the two best pitchers available to their staff.