THE DODGERS ANDREW FRIEDMAN HAS SOME EXPLAINING TO DO

Suspicious, Suspicious, Suspicious!

OK, let’s get this out of the way first: I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually agree with Buster Olney. Yeah, that Buster Olney. Wow. But hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day, and when it comes to the Dodgers’ acquisition of Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki, Olney’s skepticism is absolutely spot on.

Here’s the tea: Sasaki entered the MLB posting system in January, and all the usual suspects lined up like kids at a candy store. Yankees, Mets, Blue Jays, Padres, Rangers, Giants, Cubs—and, of course, the Dodgers. It was the ultimate bidding war… or was it? Because by January 17, Sasaki magically landed in Los Angeles with a $6.5 million posting bonus.

Suspicious? You bet.

While MLB swears up and down that their investigation found “no evidence of impropriety,” pretty much everyone else in the league is screaming foul. Even Olney didn’t mince words:

“They don’t believe it was ever on the up and up. There’s so many people who believe this was a done deal ahead of time.”

But wait, it gets better (or worse, depending on your team). During the evaluation process, Sasaki’s camp made a bizarre request: teams were asked to analyze his fastball velocity—down to 96.9 mph, gasp!—and present detailed plans for restoring and enhancing it. Naturally, organizations poured massive amounts of time, money, and expertise into crafting high-level pitching strategies.

And where did all that proprietary data end up? Oh, just in the hands of the Dodgers.

“All that information… was taped in this presentation the teams were doing,” Olney continued. “And then he chose the Dodgers, which means all these teams basically handed over proprietary information to Sasaki and the Dodgers.”

Let’s be real here: if you’re not mad about this, you’re probably Andrew Friedman or Sasaki’s agent Joel Wolfe. Rival executives are fuming, and for good reason. All those hours, all that effort—wasted. MLB can investigate all it wants, but the whispers aren’t going away. Manfred blew another one.

And the best part? Even the final decision “came down” to three teams—Dodgers, Padres, and Blue Jays—people still think the whole thing was a foregone conclusion.

So yeah, while MLB and the Dodgers might want us to believe everything’s squeaky clean, the rest of the league isn’t buying it. And honestly? Neither am I.

This smells fishier than a sushi platter at Dodger Stadium. No, that's just Friedman's crotch.  

Stay tuned on this one... this is a big deal.