There are currently a lot of unknowns surrounding Roki Sasaki’s move to MLB this winter and it appears to be a lot more open ended than initially believed.
The Los Angeles Dodgers remain the favorites to sign Sasaki, but the San Diego Padres loom and Sasaki may prefer to pitch for a smaller market club.
The Dodgers have long coveted Sasaki and have been hoping to sign him for years. They also have a strong history of winning, pitcher development and success with other Japanese players.
Having two of Sasaki’s teammates from the Japanese National Team in Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto is one of the Dodgers’ possible advantages as they make their pitch, but the former is not actively recruiting the phenom to join him and is instead respecting whatever decision he makes, according to Beth Harris of the Associated Press:
“I consider him a friend, so we’ll talk every so often about baseball in general and life. I’ll respect his decision wherever he wants to sign and I think he’ll do well wherever he goes.”
The Padres are reportedly the Dodgers’ biggest competition for Sasaki due to Yu Darvish’s presence in the organization. But like Ohtani, Darvish is not openly recruiting Sasaki to the Padres.
Ohtani, Darvish, Sasaki, and Yamamoto were all a part of the same rotation during Japan’s gold medal run in the 2023 WBC. While the Dodgers have the numbers advantage, Sasaki reportedly has a great deal of admiration for Darvish which could help the Padres’ case.
While having teammates that Sasaki is familiar with could help the Dodgers’ chances, there are reportedly much more important factors in Sasaki’s decision, including the market size, development plan for him, organizational success, and more.
Roki Sasaki unlikely to focus on signing bonus
Because Sasaki is limited as an amateur international free agent, he is limited in how much he can sign for, so his agent, Joel Wolfe, said he has advised the 23-year-old to not focus on signing bonus and limited international pool money available in his first MLB contract and to instead keep the long-term picture in mind.
Ohtani was in a similar position as he had to settle for a $2.315 million signing bonus with the Los Angeles Angels when he made the jump to MLB. Ohtani’s earnings steadily increased before cashing in on a record-setting contract with the Dodgers when he reached free agency for the second time.
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