The Roki Sasaki sweepstakes officially began when he was posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines during MLB’s Winter Meetings in Dallas.
Sasaki has started meeting with teams amid a widely-held belief the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres are the favorites for the 23-year-old.
If the Dodgers are successful, Sasaki will be the second pitcher in as many years to join them directly from the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization (NPB) after they signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a record-breaking 12-year, $325 million contract last offseason.
Sasaki’s potential contract with the Dodgers will not be in the same galaxy as Yamamoto’s due to MLB’s rules on amateur international free agents.
During an appearance on “Talkin’ Yanks” this year, New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman noted the Dodgers have enjoyed plenty of recent success signing players from Japan:
“They’re cornering the market right now on players coming over from Japan. Hopefully we can change that over the course of time. We’ve had some great Japanese players play for us with the Yankees. Guys we’re real proud of.”
Between Hideki Matsui and Masahiro Tanaka making the leap from NPB to MLB, the Yankees do have an established history with players from Japan as well. However, the Dodgers are no slouches either with Hideo Nomo once blazing a trail.
Yamamoto’s success with the Dodgers in 2024 and how they protected his health as he transitioned to MLB should be a major selling point in their pitch to Sasaki. Yamamoto had a 3.00 ERA, 105 strikeouts, and 1.11 WHIP in 90 innings pitched this year.
The Dodgers also gave him the opportunity to shine on baseball’s biggest stage and Yamamoto delivered with 6.1 innings of one-run ball in Game 2 of the World Series.
But inversely, they will have to assuage any possible worries Sasaki might have about the rash of arm injures suffered by Dodgers’ pitchers in the past two seasons.
Dodgers prioritizing Roki Sasaki
With Sasaki negotiating with various teams, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman made it clear the team is going to prioritize the 23-year-old.
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