Even with such big name free agents as Alex Bregman, Anthony Santander, Pete Alonso and Jack Flaherty remaining unsigned as the MLB offseason moves ahead into 2025, and with just 35 days to go before the start of Spring Training, the most coveted free agent on the market is a 23-year-old who has never played a single inning in the Major Leagues.
That free agent, of course, is Roki Sasaki, the Japanese pitching prodigy whose fastball has been clocked as high as 102 mph, and who in April 2023 came one inning short of pitching back-to-back perfect games in Japan’s Pacific League.
He missed out only when his manager pulled him from the second game after eight perfect innings.
Sasaki now wants to move from Japan’s professional league to the big show, better known as Major League Baseball. Not surprisingly Sasaki has drawn interest from at least 20 teams.
The only surprise is that the other 10 MLB teams have not made an attempt to persuade Sasaki to consider them as well.
GM’s Message May Mean Dodgers’ Chances ‘Advanced’
Sasaki is reported to have met in person with representatives of seven teams: the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants.
And then, on Tuesday reports emerged that another “mystery team” also met with Sasaki during his recent trip to Los Angeles. The pitcher is now home in Japan where he has until January 23 to make his decision about which team will retain his services in 2025 and beyond.
According to Sasaki’s agent Joel Wolfe, the pitching phenom may still hold return meetings with one or two clubs. When asked last week about whether the Dodgers would be one of those teams, Los Angeles general manager Brandon Gomes delivered a cryptic, 11-word response.
“I’m not able to say at this time. I hope so.”
What did that mean? Did Gomes know more than he was saying? Writer Sebastian Abdón Ibarra of the popular Dodger Blue blog, took the murky message as a sign of optimism.
“That would suggest the Dodgers have advanced in the Sasaki sweepstakes,” Ibarra wrote.
Dodgers Considered Favorites in Sasaki Sweepstakes
Whether with the Dodgers or not, if Sasaki can not reach agreement with a Major League team by that date, he will return to Japan and the Chiba Lotte Marines, the team that drafted him out of Iwate Prefectural Ofunato High School in 2021.
The Dodgers have generally been considered the favorites to sign Sasaki, though that judgement seems to be based on nothing more than the proximity of the West Coast to Japan, and the presence of two Japanese superstars on the Dodgers squad. One is Shohei Ohtani who, like Sasaki, calls Japan’s Iwate Prefecture his home.
The other is pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who prior to the 2024 season signed a record 12-year, $325 million deal with the Dodgers even though he, like Sasaki, had never thrown a Major League pitch.
Unlike Yamamoto, however, due to his age and the fact that he has pitched only four professional seasons in Japan, Sasaki is not in line for the same sort of massive payday Yamamoto received. Instead he is classified as an amateur international free agent, limiting the bonus he can receive to a seven-figure sum, and he will likely receive a league minimum salary.
