A crown jewel of the 2025 international signing period, Roki Sasaki has officially joined the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sasaki’s contract with the Dodgers was finalized Wednesday morning.
Sasaki faced a deadline to sign of Jan. 23, when his 45-day posting window closed.
The Japanese phenom signed with the Dodgers after a thorough posting process that included meeting with several teams upon being posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines in December.
Because of only being 23 years old and not yet reaching six years of service time in Nippon Professional Baseball, Sasaki was subject to MLB’s rules for international amateurs. That seemingly had all 30 teams on equal footing, and the Dodgers in some sense lagging behind because of their bonus pool money.
Sasaki was reported as having met with the Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, New York Mets and New York Yankees at Wasserman’s offices in Southern California last month.
He then pared the group down to three finalists in the Toronto Blue Jays, Padres and Dodgers. Sasaki visited Toronto last week and followed that by also making a trip to San Diego.
His meetings process then concluded with a Dodgers contingent at the Bel Air home of owner Peter Guber. Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Tommy Edman, Will Smith and Shohei Ohtani reportedly were part of the Dodgers’ second meeting with Sasaki.
The right-hander makes the jump to MLB after spending four seasons in NPB, where he finished with a career 2.10 ERA and 505 strikeouts across 394.2 innings pitched.
Roki Sasaki’s signing bonus
The Dodgers’ international bonus pool total was $5,146,200, which tied with the San Francisco Giants for the smallest amount when the 2025 period opened. However, the Dodgers made a pair of trades with the Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies to increase their total by a reported $1.75 to $2 million.
Thus, Sasaki’s signing bonus with the Dodgers was $6.5 million. It’s the highest amount given to one player during an international signing period since 2017.
Sasaki otherwise is poised to earn around the MLB minimum while on his Minor League contract and before becoming eligible for arbitration.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers additionally owe $1.625 million — 25% of Sasaki’s signing bonus — to the Marines as a posting fee.
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