The top of the starting pitching market proved to be as robust as it was expected with Blake Snell, Max Fried and Corbin Burnes finding new homes on lucrative long-term deals.
That’s left Roki Sasaki as the top remaining starting pitcher available. Sasaki reportedly has met with seven teams since he was posted
After meeting with the New York Mets, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, Sasaki has returned to Japan in order to evaluate his next steps.
It’s plausible Sasaki visits teams during a second round of meetings. He can make a decision at any point now but not officially sign with a team until Jan. 15 when the 2025 international signing period opens.
Joel Wolfe of Wasserman Media Group, who represents Sasaki, said the expectation is that he won’t sign with a team on the first day of being eligible to do so, per Will Sammon of the Athletic:
As it stands, Wolfe said he does not anticipate Sasaki signing on precisely Jan. 15 but at some point between Jan. 15 and Jan. 23.
“The timeline for Round 2 is going to lead right up until he signs,” Wolfe said. “We’re still talking and having Zoom calls. So I don’t have a precise timeline for that, like we did for the meetings. Teams will be notified at some point if there’s going to be additional meetings or travel or something like that. But other than that, I don’t believe there’s going to be any specific timeline.”
The Dodgers have already addressed their need for starting pitching with the signing of Snell, but adding Saski on top of that significantly elevates the ceiling of the rotation in 2025 and beyond.
The Dodgers have a mix of pitchers returning from injury as well as some young talent to help fill out the rotation behind Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Snell in 2025. Signing Sasaki would give the Dodgers one less spot to worry about.
Dodgers’ odds to sign Roki Sasaki
The Dodgers and Padres have been the consensus favorites to sign Sasaki throughout the process and that continues to be the case after the first round of meetings.
While the Dodgers have to contend with the Padres for Sasaki’s services, they reportedly still have the upper hand as their odds of signing him are viewed as better than 50%.
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