Yu Darvish has more important things to do than recruit Roki Sasaki to the Padres

While the Los Angeles Dodgers have long been linked to 23-year-old Japanese starting pitcher Roki Sasaki thanks to their recent signing of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, it's the San Diego Padres that could ultimately play spoiler. Sasaki is said to idolize Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish, who paved a path for Japanese starting pitchers in the big leagues.

Sasaki is said to not care much about market size, but is otherwise prioritizing organizations' ability to develop young starting pitchers. There's also more space for endorsement deals in San Diego which would otherwise be taken up by the likes of Ohtani and Yamamoto in Los Angeles.

“I think it’s a good thing if he were to come to San Diego,” Darvish said through interpreter Shingo Horie of Sasaki's free agency. “Just for myself personally, if it does happen, yeah, it’s a great thing for me as well. But we’ll see how things shake out.”

Darvish has also made it clear that he doesn't plan on doing much recruiting on the Sasaki front, as he believes the 23-year-old should make his own decisions based on his top priorities.

“I don’t think there’s much that I can do,” Darvish said. “He knows what he wants, he’ll make his decision, and I’m sure there’s going to be a couple of meetings coming up for him. And that will give him an opportunity to see what organizations are like. I’m sure he’s going to make his decision, and we’ll all be respectful of that.”

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Yu Darvish is true to his word and enjoying his offseason not recruiting Roki Sasaki

Darvish has backed up his words by, for the most part, staying silent on the matter and enjoying his offseason. On Sunday night, Darvish posted a picture of himself and fellow Japanese starting pitcher Yusei Kikuchi enjoying a bottle of whiskey (and Kikuchi perhaps enjoying said bottle a little too much).

"I had dinner with the Kikuchi couple while they were on vacation at the end of last year. We had a lively and fun time together with both families in the house we rented. Kikuchi drank most of the Hibiki that he brought with him, and eventually passed out drunk. He couldn't find an Uber to take us home, so he ended up staying the night," Darvish wrote (translated from Japanese via google).

Darvish's glowing personality speaks for itself, and he'd rather reminisce about a fun night with an old friend than spend time and resources recruiting Sasaki, who is old enough to make his own decision with the help of his representation.

You truly love to see it.