Breaking: Rōki Sasaki’s Agent Exposes Truth Behind Dodgers…

The San Diego Padres may have another advantage in the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes. Earlier this week Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe of Wasserman, had to publicly deny allegations that the Los Angeles Dodgers already had an unwritten agreement with the 23-year-old pitcher.

“While a bunch of executives who should know me better and do a lot of business with me insult my integrity by insinuating that I would be a part of some type of nefarious agreement,” Wolfe told The Athletic, “in reality, this is just poor sportsmanship.”

Wolfe’s comments come after a number of front office executives suspected Sasaki having some sort of unwritten agreement to join the Dodgers. Some executives went as far as bringing the rumors to the commissioner’s office.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred was vague in his comments regarding the potential scandal.

“There are certain things — exchange of information, whatever — that (were) perfectly allowable,” Manfred said earlier this week “The concern with those agreements comes when, for example, the American club has some priority access to players that are under control because it would allow them to expand the number of players they have under control. And we’ve always been scrupulous about not allowing those.”

Sasaki, the soon to be international amateur free agent, may not want to land in Los Angeles after the allegations insinuating the Dodgers have an illegal agreement with the young pitcher. In many ways, this opens the door for others teams to snag Sasaki.

There is a possibility that the rumors could taint Sasaki’s connection with the Dodgers, which means the Japanese phenom may set his sights elsewhere.

The Padres have an advantage over other teams around the league since veteran pitcher Yu Darvish competes for San Diego. Darvish reportedly has a strong connection with Sasaki.

Additionally, Sasaki will likely be signed only once the new international signing period opens on Jan. 15. That would mean the Dodgers would be among teams with the least amount of money left in their international bonus pool, giving the Padres yet another advantage.

If Sasaki is posted in the next signing period, it would negate the rumors about the Dodgers’ unwritted deal. However, the Padres would be the favorite to sign Sasaki.