The Cubs have gone through the first couple steps of pursuing 23-year-old free agent flame-thrower Roki Sasaki. But the Japanese phenom has yet to whittle down the playing field from an initial round of in-person interviews, Sasaki’s agent Joel Wolfe said in a Zoom news conference call Monday.
“He is definitely driving the ship and calling the shots,” Wolfe said. “Roki is a very driven and intelligent and particular person.”
Sasaki must make his decision in the next 3½ weeks, bound by the rules of the posting system as he moves from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball to MLB. The 2025 inter-national signing period opens Jan. 15. Sasaki’s posting window remains open for about another week after that.
Wolfe said that “as of now,” he doesn’t foresee Sasaki signing with a team immediately when the international period opens.
When Sasaki was posted for MLB teams earlier this month, his agents at Wasserman put out an all-call for teams to submit information for him to review. By their last count, 20 teams had sent in material. The Cubs, according to sources, were among the teams that began preparing their presentation in advance and submitted their presentation within days of Sasaki’s posting.
“It was really something,” Wolfe said. “The level of preparation, the videos. I mean, it was like the Roki Film Festival.”
The next step was a round of in-person meetings in Los Angeles that included the Cubs, sources confirmed. Wolfe declined to say how many teams Sasaki met with.
Wanting to ensure a “fair and level playing field,” Sasaki set specific criteria for the meetings, Wolfe said. Each meeting was limited to two hours. Players weren’t allowed to serve as team representatives. And Sasaki gave every team a “homework assignment.”
“Without giving the actual details of what that assignment was, every team got that very same assignment,” Wolfe said. “And it enabled them to show how they can analyze and communicate information with him, and really showed where he was coming from in analyzing and creating his selection criteria in looking at different teams.”
Next steps for Sasaki, who returned to Japan over the holidays, could include additional first-round meetings with one or two more teams. But Wolfe said it was more likely he would begin narrowing his choices. He also will decide if he wants to visit “one or two cities” as he finalizes his decision.
Now, the Cubs wait to hear if they’ll make the cut.
If they managed to sign Sasaki, the move would strengthen the Cubs’ case as serious competitors next season. They’d be further strengthening their rotation right after adding three-time All-Star Kyle Tucker, the kind of hitter their lineup was missing.
Sasaki’s velocity and stuff are expected to make him tough against hitters right away. And he’s so young that he also could help extend a possible Cubs championship window. He might not be an ace immediately, but many believe he has future Cy Young potential.
“He wants to be one of the greatest ever,” Wolfe said. “I see that now, and he’s articulated it. And to be that, he knows he has to challenge himself.”
Discussing how Sasaki’s experience in the 2023 World Baseball Classic alongside Japanese MLB stars Shohei Ohtani and Yu Darvish helped inspire him to make the jump to MLB, Wolfe also mentioned a certain Cubs pitcher.
“Seeing [Shota] Imanaga come over and dominate at such a level in the first half, I believe [Sasaki] realized — and I’m not speaking for Roki, I’m speaking my own opinion — that in order to take it to the next level, he had to come here, play against the best players in the world every day and tap into all the resources that major-league teams have to help him become one of the best pitchers to not just come out of NPB but to be one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball,” Wolfe said.
