Japanese starting pitcher Roki Sasaki has been a focus of MLB rumors for over a year, with teams eyeing the 23-year-old ace since last offseason. Now that he’s finally been posted to MLB free agency, a unique battle is on for the right-handed pitcher.
Sasaki, who just turned 23 in November, is one of the best pitchers in baseball outside the United States. He’s a two-time All-Star in Nippon Professional Baseball, responsible for both a perfect game (April 10, 2022) and the NPB’s single-game strikeout record (19).
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- Roki Sasaki stats 2024 (Baseball Reference): 2.35 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 4.03 K/BB, 10.5 K/9, 6.7 H/9, 0.2 HR/9 in 111 innings pitched
What makes Sasaki’s free agency so unique are the rules put in place for international free agents under the age of 25. He can only sign a minor league contract, with his signing bonus coming from a club’s limited international bonus pool money for 2025. As a result, money won’t be the biggest factor in his decision.
It’s already been previously reported that Sasaki has a slight preference for a smaller market, but that hasn’t ruled out teams in Los Angeles and New York. The New York Mets had an in-person meeting with Sasaki on Thursday and he’s also expected to meet with the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and New York Yankees soon.
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According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, Sasaki is paying attention to teams’ “overall success”, their history of developing starting pitchers and each club’s track record with Japanese players.
- Roki Sasaki career stats (NPB): 2.45 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 5.74 K/BB, 11.5 K/9, 6.0 H/9, 0.3 HR/9 in 394.2 innings pitched
Based on those factors, teams like the Dodgers and Yankees would seemingly be in the best position to sign the 23-year-old ace. He has a very close relationship with Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish and could join fellow Japanese pitchers Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the Dodgers rotation.
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The Mets do have Jodai Senga, but they have more of a limited history of recent success. The Yankees used to be a popular destination for Japanese players, but Masahiro Tanaka was the most recent one and he last pitched for the Yankees in 2020.