The Los Angeles Dodgers are signaling their top two priorities in free agency, according to Robert Murray of FanSided, and neither is a surprise.
After winning the World Series and faced with a number of potential free-agent departures, the Dodgers are targeting starting pitching and outfielders, Murray said on The Baseball Insiders show with Adam Weinrib.
Two-thirds of the Dodgers’ postseason rotation (Walker Buehler and Jack Flaherty) became free agents after the World Series. So did left fielder Teoscar Hernández, while right fielder Mookie Betts is expected to shift back to the infield in 2025.
Coincidentally, a starting pitcher (Roki Sasaki) and an outfielder (Juan Soto) are the most talked-about free agents in this year’s class.
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Sasaki has yet to be formally posted by his Japanese team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, but they could be waiting to allow his 45-day signing window to coincide with the start of the next international amateur signing period on Jan. 15.
The Dodgers have been linked to both Sasaki and Soto in multiple reports. However, there are ample options in both markets should the Dodgers’ bid come up short with either player.
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Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported the Dodgers as one of several teams to have already scheduled meetings with Soto and his agent, Scott Boras, in California this month. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported the Dodgers have interest in Soto, but only “in the unlikely event his market softens.”
Murray echoed that sentiment Thursday, counting the New York Mets and New York Yankees as the favorites to sign the 26-year-old outfielder in a field that also includes the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox.
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“I still think it’s the Mets and the Yankees,” Murray said. “There’s going to be other teams involved. It’s going to be more than just those two.”
Hernandez, whose 33-homer season helped propel the Dodgers to the World Series, is a logical alternative if Soto signs elsewhere. Hernandez stated after the season he would like to return to Los Angeles.
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“If the money’s close,” Murray said of Hernandez, “he’ll probably end up doing it.”
Besides Soto and Hernandez, Anthony Santander is the only other free agent outfielder who received a qualifying offer this offseason. All three are expected to reject the offer, a one-year, $21.05 million contract for 2025.
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Signing Soto or Santander would cost the Dodgers their second- and fifth-highest selections in the 2025 Draft, as well as $1 million from their international bonus pool for the upcoming signing period. The Dodgers would not be penalized for re-signing Hernandez.
As for Sasaki, money is not an issue. Because he left Japan at age 23, Sasaki will be limited to earning the major league minimum salary in 2024 plus whatever signing bonus he’s able to extract from teams’ limited amateur spending pools. If he signs on Jan. 15 or later, that effectively limits him to something in the $5.1 to $7.6 million range. If he signs earlier, it’s even less.
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That alone gives every team a realistic chance at signing Sasaki, who went 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA in 18 starts for the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2024, with 129 strikeouts in 111 innings.
Re-signing either Buehler or Flaherty — neither of whom received the qualifying offer — would not preclude the Dodgers from signing Sasaki from a financial standpoint. Adding two free agents could potentially create a logjam in their 2025 rotation.
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Shohei Ohtani will return from his year-long elbow rehabilitation program to join what is expected to be a six-man group along with Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Clayton Kershaw.
Kershaw is a free agent as well after declining the player option in his contract for 2025. But he has stated he will return for an 18th major league season in Los Angeles.
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