After meeting with representatives from MLB teams in the United States, pitcher Roki Sasaki has returned to Japan to decide on his next move, a representative for the star pitcher announced Monday night.
Agent Joel Wolfe said on a Zoom call with reporters that Sasaki's likely next step will be to narrow down his list of suitors and visit one or two cities ahead of the international free agent signing period, which begins Jan. 15. He said he might visit.
The Mets and Yankees were among the teams the 23-year-old Sasaki met with during his visit to the United States, according to people familiar with the matter, but Wolf did not even reveal the team's name or number.
As a player under the age of 25, Sasaki is not eligible for a major league contract and can only be signed using the team's international bonus pool.
Such was the case when Shohei Ohtani came to MLB and signed with the Angels for $2.31 million in international bonus pool money before the 2018 season.
Wolfe said Sasaki, who can hit speeds of up to 100 miles per hour and supplements that with a splitter, studied the presentations of 20 teams before choosing his opponent.
The consensus in the industry is that the Dodgers and Padres are the frontrunners for Sasaki.
“He's a guy who wants to be great,” Wolf said. “He's not a guy who came here just to get rich or get a big contract.”
To ensure that all suitors he meets are on a “level playing field,” Wolfe said all team meetings are held in his office and are limited to two hours with no other players present. He said that he had been
According to Wolf, Sasaki gave each competing team “homework.”
“Each team was given the exact same challenge and we were able to show them how they could analyze and communicate information with him,” Wolf said. “Looking at different teams really showed where he analyzes and creates his selection criteria from.”
According to sources, Sasaki, who arrived at Nippon Professional Baseball's Chiba Lotte Marines before the start of the winter meetings, met with officials from the Yankees and Mets on the same day earlier this month.
David Stearns, the Mets' director of baseball operations, paid his respects to the right-hander and visited Japan in September to watch Sasaki pitch.
Stearns later said the Mets would do their “best job” to sign Sasaki.
The Mets' total international bonus for 2025 is $6.2 million. Of that amount, $5 million will go to Elian Pena, a highly touted 16-year-old shortstop who will be eligible to sign on January 15th.
The Yankees' total international bonuses for 2025 are $6.2 million.
Wolf has previously indicated that he told Sasaki of the importance of looking beyond the money numbers, as the upper and lower ends of the offer are very close and the long term of his career is where he will make his money. .
Kodai Chiga, Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas, Clay Holmes and David Peterson will be available next season, with names like Paul Blackburn, Tyler Megill and Griffin Canning emerging as possibilities for the No. 6 spot. Sasaki would be a great luxury for the Mets' rotation. Frequently used numbers.
The six-man rotation will allow Chiga, who grew during his rookie season with more days between starts, more rest.
The Yankees have Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Luis Gil, Carlos Rodon, and back-end options Clark Schmidt, Marcus Stroman, and Jonathan Loaisiga.
Loaisiga is recovering from elbow surgery and will likely be sidelined for at least the first month of the season.
Both teams in New York pursued Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Wolfe's other client) hard last winter.
Yamamoto, then 25, ultimately signed a 12-year contract with the Dodgers worth $325 million, a record for a free agent pitcher.
The Dodgers also paid the Orix Buffaloes $50.6 million in posting fees.
If Sasaki were to sign with the Dodgers, it would give the defending World Series champions another capable arm for a rotation that may already be rated as the best in MLB.
Ohtani, Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow are already part of that rotation, which also includes names like Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin and Gavin Stone.
