Roki Sasaki was officially posted this week meaning teams have a 45-day window to negotiate with the Japanese pitcher. The right-hander will be eligible to sign as an international agent once the next international signing period begins Jan. 15.
His agent Joel Wolfe spoke to media in Dallas and offered details of the kinds of questions Sasaki’s been asking leading up to his arrival to MLB.
“He’s talked to a lot of players, foreign players, that have been on his team with (his Nippon Professional Baseball team) Chiba Lotte,” Wolfe told reporters, per The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey. “He asked a lot of questions about weather, about comfortability, about pitching development. And just watching what other Japanese players in the major leagues are doing and how they are doing.”
If Sasaki wants to ensure he continues to develop as a starting pitcher, the 23-year-old could consider the Red Sox as a viable destination. Andrew Bailey and his staff proved to be beneficial for the developments of Kutter Crawford and Tanner Houck. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and manager Alex Cora’s confidence in the pitching staff could be a potential selling point for Sasaki.
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As for the weather, it depends on how much he likes the cold.
Sasaki is traveling to the United States and will begin meeting with teams next week before returning home for Christmas. Wolfe didn’t divulge how many teams they will meet with, but they do plan on meeting in one central location.
“We’re gonna leave it open-ended, depending on how the first round of meetings go, how many meetings he actually has, how many total meetings he plans to have,” Wolfe said. “Teams have already begun sending presentations both in video and powerpoint, PDF-form, that sort of thing. But we didn’t give teams a hard deadline to submit that information because we want them to be able to put the time in to do it right. Obviously some teams were already working on these things, some of them for months I believe.”
Wolfe noted how Sasaki hasn’t gotten the best treatment from media in Japan; in Japanese culture, it’s sometimes considered disrespectful for players to leave NPB for MLB at a young age. A small to mid-size market was in consideration but not a dealbreaker. You certainly could make the argument that Boston has a small-market feel to it if that was a concern.
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A Sasaki deal is unlikely to happen during the Winter Meetings, but he’s an intriguing name to keep an eye on in free agency.
