Teruaki Sato is going to draw attention this offseason, and that part is easy to see coming.
The Hanshin Tigers are expected to post him, and with the lockout looming after December 1, the action around his market should start heating up in November. Reports from Japan already point to seven teams in the mix: the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, Blue Jays, Mariners, Phillies and Giants.
That list is exactly the kind of list these posting stories tend to produce. And, as usual, the Dodgers are right there at the center of it before anything has even happened.
But that’s where the familiar script starts to wobble. Los Angeles gets linked to almost every overseas star, yet the roster has to make sense too. In Sato’s case, that’s the issue.
He’s not short on appeal. The power is real, and that’s going to be the first thing teams talk about this winter, especially with Munetaka Murakami having been passed over last year before signing with the Chicago White Sox. Sato has hit 79 home runs over the past two years, and while the swing-and-miss will come with him, the power alone gives him a profile plenty of clubs will chase.
For the Dodgers, though, the fit gets messy fast. Sato is mostly seen as a third baseman or right fielder, though there’s also a belief he could move to first base.
None of those options solve an obvious LA problem. Another outfielder isn’t what this roster needs, and if the idea is that he eventually becomes the answer for Max Muncy or Freddie Freeman, that would be an awfully expensive way to plan ahead.
So yes, the Dodgers can never be ruled out. But in this case, calling them the favorite for Sato feels like a reach.
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