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For the second time in two off-seasons, the Jays lost out to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the pursuit of a franchise-altering player. In December of 2023, Shohei Ohtani broke the hearts of Jays supporters everywhere by turning down their team in favour of signing a 10-year, $700-million contract in L.A.聽This time it was Sasaki’s turn to provide the soul-crushing moment by posting his decision to Instagram on Friday night.

The Dodgers were long considered the favourites to sign Sasaki, a future ace with a 100-m.p.h. arm. They offered the chance to play for the reigning World Series champions and pitch alongside countrymen Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. By comparison, the Jays, coming off a last-place finish in the American League East with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette soon eligible for free agency, didn’t figure to stand much of a chance.

But the Jays’ odds began to improve as they outlasted the New York Yankees, New York Mets, the Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers. After the San Diego Padres were eliminated on Friday morning, the Jays and Dodgers were the only teams left. It was a shocking turn of events, and then a trade happened that led even the biggest pessimists to think the Jays were about to do something big.

Just before noon, the Jays acquired $2 million in international cap space from the Cleveland Guardians. In doing so, they agreed to take on the contract of Myles Straw, a 30-year-old outfielder owed $13.8 million over the next two seasons with a team option in 2027 that can be bought out for $1.75 million. The Guardians will only cover $3.75 million.

The Jays clearly made the move for cap space, not the player, because Straw has never been an effective big leaguer despite the large guarantee. From 2022-23, he combined to hit .229 with one home run and a woeful .580 on-base plus slugging percentage in 997 at-bats. Last year, he spent almost the entire season at Triple-A and performed equally poorly.

Straw offers some value as a defensive specialist, but paying the next Bradley Zimmer more than $10 million didn’t seem logical unless it was done to entice Sasaki. One might have even been tempted to think an agreement was already in place and the Jays were making the necessary moves to finalize it. I sure did.

After word of the trade with Cleveland broke, this columnist quickly began writing about Sasaki signing with the Jays in preparation for an announcement. I did so assuming that not even a front office that has been criticized as frequently as Toronto’s would be reckless enough to throw away $10 million on a bad contract without some kind of guarantee beforehand. I was wrong.

Those 1,000 words will never see the light of day, just like last year’s column about an Ohtani arrival that never happened. 鈥淔ool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me鈥澛燿oesn’t even apply anymore. After missing out on Ohtani, Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Teoscar Hern谩ndez and others, the Jays fan base has been put through a lifetime of disappointment within 14 months.

For several hours on Friday, it appeared as though Sasaki would be the one to end that trend. He throws a 98-m.p.h. fastball that tops out at 102 while possessing a lethal splitter that leads to a lot of swing-and-miss. That the 23-year-old right-hander would have been added to the roster on a rookie-scale contract only added to the appeal because it meant money would still be available to spend elsewhere.

The pursuit was a Hail Mary that聽鈥� if completed聽鈥� had the potential to change everything. Instead, the Jays have been abandoned at the altar again, forced to pick up the pieces from another relationship that fell apart before it ever began.

After all the trauma the Jays have recently endured, this latest tease seems like overkill. The fans, who would likely have preferred to be unaware about how close their team came to signing all these stars, don’t deserve this, but they’ll have to learn to live with it. After missing out on Sasaki, it doesn’t look like their fortunes are changing any time soon.

The Jays chased some of the game’s best players and all they have to show for it is a 30-year-old reserve outfielder on a bloated contract. This is normally where I’d insert a joke, but this stopped being funny a long time ago.