DALLAS – Japanese pitching phenom Roki Sasaki will begin meeting with prospective MLB teams next week, his agent, Joel Wolfe, announced after his client was officially posted on Tuesday morning.
Over four seasons in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league, Sasaki owns a 2.10 ERA and 0.894 WHIP over 64 games, with 505 strikeouts and just 88 walks through 394 ⅔ innings. Nicknamed “The Monster of the Reiwa Era,” he has the potential to be the best Japanese pitcher in the history of the posting system.
For a nominal fee, too. Because he’s younger than 25 (he turned 23 on Nov. 3), Sasaki is classified as an amateur signee, making him subject to international bonus pool restrictions. It’s the rare instance in which a star player’s posting won’t cost a team tens of millions; unlike Yoshinobu Yamamoto, whom the Dodgers signed to an unprecedented 12-year, $325 million when he was posted last offseason, the bonus pools are capped between $4.6 and just over $7.1 million. Like Shohei Ohtani’s Angels contract in 2018, Sasaki will be akin to that of a debuting minor leaguer under club control for six years, earning the league minimum salary for the first three and eligible for arbitration in the latter three.
“My advice to him is, don’t make a decision based on (money),” Wolfe said as he stood in the Hilton Anatole’s ballroom, which has been converted to a media work room and press conference stage for the ongoing Winter Meetings. He explained that Sasaki is considering a plethora of variables and has asked him about teams’ weather, comfortability, and player development.
The Dodgers are heavily favored to land Sasaki, due to their uber-talented roster, annual postseason appearances, championship, and the West Coast’s proximity to Japan. In theory, Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani being signed long-term gives the Dodgers an advantage.
Likewise for the Seattle Mariners. A source told the Herald that the Mariners also plan to make a strong push for Sasaki, with help from Japanese baseball legend Ichiro Suzuki. The legendary outfielder, who’s presumed to be on the cusp of a first-ballot election to the Baseball Hall of Fame, played in Seattle for the first 11 ½ and final two seasons of his 19-year MLB career. A mainstay in Seattle, Suzuki often dons the uniform when he works with the current players.
Boston has Masataka Yoshida, Sasaki’s 2023 World Baseball Classic teammate, on the roster. After Team Japan defeated Team USA to win the tournament last March, Sasaki told WBC media member Shawn Spradling that Yoshida’s three-run homer was his favorite part of the experience.
However, Wolfe noted that Sasaki won’t necessarily make his decision based on whether a team has a “Senpai” – the Japanese term for a mentor or master – for him on their roster. He also downplayed the influence of geography, saying, “He’s never brought that up as an issue. Wolfe suggested Sasaki might benefit from signing in a smaller market as a way to ease into MLB life, but also noted that he thought Sasaki could do well in New York.
Yet the Red Sox can also offer Sasaki something many teams cannot: a track record of success. Coming to the Majors can be a difficult adjustment for players from other leagues, but many Japanese players have soared in a Sox uniform and enjoyed living in Boston, including ‘07 champion righty Daisuke ‘Dice-K’ Matsuzaka and ’13 champion closer Koji Uehara.
“The Boston Red Sox have a long history of success in making a smooth transition and creating an environment where international players and Japanese players, in particular, can be successful and thrive,” chief baseball officer Craig Breslow explained on Tuesday. “We have a robust infrastructure and a number of long-tenured support staff, from massage therapists, to strength-and-conditioning coaches, to athletic trainers, that I think can help. And I think there’s a meaningful difference between kind of, hiring to create the infrastructure in response to a particular pursuit versus having these people embedded in the organization, and understanding what a season looks like, have many, many, many years of experiences and just intimate knowledge.”
The Red Sox have $990K left in this year’s international bonus pool, which is the fifth-highest remaining pool sum behind the Dodgers, Orioles, Yankees, and Giants (in that order). If Sasaki waits until the ‘25 signing period, Boston will have $6.26 million to offer.
“This is someone who makes any rotation better the moment that they join,” Breslow said. “As we think about pursuing front-of-the-rotation options, I think it makes sense to canvas the entire landscape. And we’ll be as aggressive and as strategic as possible.”
Sasaki’s 45-day posting window ends Jan. 23, but due to the timing of his posting, there’s a sizable limbo-period in the middle. The ‘24 signing period ends on Dec. 15. If he doesn’t sign by then, which is unlikely, teams will have to wait until the ‘25 period opens on Jan. 15.
