MLB’s best free agents feature a little bit of everything, from MVPs, Cy Young winners, Silver Sluggers, World Series winners, you name it. Yet, one of the most intriguing options expected to become available at some point this winter is Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki.
He’s entering a unique situation in that he’s not allowed to sign for several hundred million dollars. Instead, since he hasn’t pitched long enough in the NPB, Sasaki is considered a minor league free agent, which caps his salary at $7.5 million.
Yet, much of the talk surrounding Sasaki has been linking him to the Los Angeles Dodgers, where his fellow countrymen Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto play. However, now, a new report goes against those early Sasaki rumors.
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Clubs with strong pitching development programs linked to Roki Sasaki
If Roki Sasaki’s free agency was of the more usual variety without limiting his earnings, then teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, and Mets would all be favorites. Yet, teams are capped with an individual international free agent spending pool, which opens Sasaki’s free agency candidates to a much wider group of possibilities.
While Sasaki could very well still land with the Dodgers for other reasons, one MLB insider, The Athletic’s Jim Bowden, believes other, smaller market teams actually have the advantage.
“Sasaki needs pitching development, which does make the Dodgers a fit, but it also gives advantages to teams such as the San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Rays, Mets and Atlanta Braves, who all have strong pitching development programs. It’ll be fascinating to see which team he chooses. I’m just not buying the narrative that it’ll be the Dodgers. Based on what I’m hearing, I think the Padres, Rays, Mets and Braves are all more likely to sign Sasaki than the Dodgers — and several other teams will be in the mix.”
The Athletic’s Jim Bowden on Roki Sasaki
For the Padres specifically, it likely doesn’t hurt that they also have Yu Darvish on the roster, who’s been described as “like a godfather” to Sasaki. One other factor that could weigh into the 23-year-old’s decision is his ability to secure various endorsements.
As Bowden noted, the Dodgers are in a big market, but they’re already heavily invested into promoting Yamamoto and Ohtani, among others. Is there really more room for a third player who’s not even an established MLB talent yet? Or would he be better off going elsewhere, in a situation where he’d surely be one of the main attractions?
No matter what, until he’s officially posted as a free agent, all the Sasaki rumors will continue to flow. But this report at least indicates that the race could still be wide open.
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