SAN DIEGO — In San Diego, news that one-man Powerball ticket Roki Sasaki has decided to join the Los Angeles Dodgers was more than a gut punch. It was a steel-toed boot to the shin, a Clydesdale stomp to the foot, a right hook to the jaw.

This hurt in all kinds of ways, big and bigger than big.

The Dodgers, a team that spent more than $1 billion last season alone before winning the World Series, just became a one-city All-Star team.

Sasaki, the Japanese star with a ceiling as mesmerizing as the Sistine Chapel, has joined a rotation that includes two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, $700 million arm and bat Shohei Ohtani, $325 million Japanese pickup Yoshinobu Yamamoto and All-Star Tyler Glasnow.

That’s insane. Who’s next, time-machine Nolan Ryan?

Then you tick off the offense Sasaki and the Dodgers line up behind that staff, starting with league MVPs Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, and the big picture staggers.

That much pitching. That much offense. That much groaning, for the Padres in particular.

There are two more levels of pain for the Dodgers’ National League West rival beyond the ace-caliber expectations. Sasaki, who announced his decision Friday on Instagram, is controllable for six years.

Six.

And the 23-year-old came to the U.S. so early that instead of the Brink’s truck Yamamoto commanded, he will be paid pennies on the big-league dollar.

The franchise with seemingly more riches than an Egyptian pharaoh, the one that deferred $680 million of Ohtani’s salary for a decade, somehow found a way to spend less.

This is not the rich getting richer. It’s the rich turning into Elon Musk.

Sasaki could have evened the very uneven playing field for the Padres a bit, considering the sturdy rotational timber of Dylan Cease and Michael King.

The right-hander could’ve been another another arm to lean on for a Padres team that pushed the Dodgers to the brink more than anyone during the run to the World Series title.

The Padres also face a sizable hole with an All-Star arm in Joe Musgrove expected to be out for the bulk of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Although Sasaki might not have been the solution, he would have been a desperately needed salve.

There’s also the frustration in San Diego and beyond that the Dodgers get whomever they want, whenever they want. The gravitational pull of the World Series win, coupled with the possibility of multiple more to come, has become baseball’s Venus flytrap.

Get too close and it’s over.

This will create a rush to the free agency pile, since the finalist Padres, Blue Jays and others have been holding powder waiting for Sasaki’s decision. The remaining market and international signings will shake loose after the most significant domino tumbled.

That leaves the Padres, who have been mostly silent this offseason with the bench signing of Tyler Wade and catching insurance plan Martin Maldonado on a minor-league deal.

The Sasaki stomachache notwithstanding, the Padres still need to lock down a left fielder, a potentially big-league-ready catcher and at least one more arm for the rotation.

The work to do ranks high on the sleeve-rolling scale.

Nothing, of course, will match the gorging of the Dodgers. The Padres likely will be left to bank on their own stars, from Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. to should-have-been rookie of the year Jackson Merrill.

Sasaki had the potential to inject some momentum and add a wave of buzz to ride. The right-hander’s fastball and destructive splitter amounted to resume aplenty.

But the Dodgers. Of course.

The balance of power in the N.L. West is imbalanced beyond belief. No small factor or factors: The Diamondbacks got better with the surprise pickup of former Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes and former Padres thumper Josh Naylor.

The Giants scooped up big-name shortstop Willy Adames.

The Padres? We’re still waiting.

It’s hard to imagine anyone challenging the Dodgers in the West. The Padres and others are left to chase wild-card spots in the best ways they can.

San Diego showed that getting hot late and simply getting in can create a fresh reality by polishing off the Braves and pushing the Dodgers to within three runs of elimination.

That job, however, just became that much harder and that much more daunting with a climb that has steepened.

It often felt like the Dodgers were the favorites for Sasaki with all that winning sauce and the influences of Ohtani and Yamamoto.

Though Sasaki mentor Yu Darvish of the Padres made you wonder, that does not seem to be the baseball world we’re currently living in.

Ouch.

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