Blake Snell whiff puts even more pressure on Yu Darvish and AJ Preller

The Los Angeles Dodgers signing Blake Snell to a five-year, $182 million deal on Tuesday night delivered a message to every other team in the league that the bar had been raised even higher entering 2025. But that's especially true for the San Diego Padres, L.A.'s primary competition in the NL West — and the team that game within just one game from bouncing the Dodgers out of the postseason for the second time in the last three years.

For as close as the Padres came to reaching the NLCS and beyond this past season, the climb will only get steeper next year, with the Dodgers adding a two-time Cy Young winner to their rotation (and Shohei Ohtani returning to the mound). And with Manny Machado not getting any younger and Dylan Cease, Michael King and Luis Arraez entering contract years, the time is now for San Diego to maximize its championship window. Which means the Padres are really, really feeling the heat right now — and if they want to finally get over the World Series hump, they're going to need their general manager and one player in particular to help get some revenge on L.A.

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Blake Snell signing means Padres must land star Japanese free agent Roki Sasaki

The Dodgers already have Snell in the fold, but they're far from done adding to the rotation. For as high as Snell's ceiling is, he's not the most reliable ace out there, and Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw and Bobby Miller are all major question marks (health or otherwise) entering 2025. Andrew Friedman is going to add at least one more arm this winter, and it's clera who's at the top of his wish list: Japanese ace Roki Sasaki, who figures to be among the most coveted free agents of the offseason.

Sasaki has legitimate top-of-the-rotation stuff at just 23 years old, and because he's classified as an international amateur free agent, teams won't have to break the bank to land him. That's great news for the Dodgers, who would love to upgrade their rotation without further denting their payroll. And given their location, recent track record and a roster featuring multiple players who have played with Sasaki on Team Japan, Los Angeles has long been considered the favorite to land the hard-throwing righty.

But if anyone can swoop in here, it's the Padres, who just so happen to have an ace in the hole: righty Yu Darvish, Sasaki's close friend and mentor. It's not an exaggeration to say that the fate of the National League might be riding on this particular sweepstakes: While the Mets still have a chance to make a Juan Soto-sized splash this winter, it was San Diego who gave the Dodgers their toughest battle in October; and given the team's payroll constraints, Sasaki might be their best chance to give their rotation a shot in the arm. If Darvish and GM AJ Preller come through, San Diego has no reason to be afraid of the Dodgers entering next season. Come up short, though, and you can almost hear the window closing.