DALLAS — Aki Sasaki's free agency is set to accelerate next week, with the Japanese pitching star scheduled to begin calling up interested teams in the United States, his agent said during winter meetings Tuesday.
The 23-year-old Sasaki was recently officially designated by Nippon Professional Baseball's Chiba Lotte Marines. The problem is, as a Japanese player under the age of 25, he is not eligible for a major league contract and must use the team's international bonus pool funds to sign him — Shohei Ohtani signed to MLB before the 2018 season. It was the same when I joined.
Sasaki throws a 100 mph fastball and supplements it with a splitter.
The Mets have expressed interest in pitcher Sasaki, and head of baseball operations David Stearns came to Japan to watch him pitch in September. Stearns indicated Tuesday that the Mets remain interested and are preparing a video presentation for the pitcher.
But Stearns said any potential meeting with Sasaki would be “by invitation only,” meaning the Mets would have to wait and see if there was enough interest in Sasaki to proceed.
“I'm going to give it my all,” Stearns said. “It's very difficult to truly understand player preferences in a process like this. This is not a normal free agent recruiting process, so we submit presentations and materials like everyone else and get camp feedback. I’ll wait.”
The Mets' total international bonuses for 2025 are $6.2 million. Of that amount, $5 million will go to highly touted 16-year-old shortstop Elian Pena.
Besides breaking the agreement with Pena, another path for the Mets to obtain additional bonus pool money would be through a trade. Teams may redeem up to 50% of their bonus pool allocation.
But Sasaki's agent, Joel Wolfe, said he has been talking to clients that Sasaki doesn't necessarily need to chase the dollar, given that the floor and ceiling for many deals are so close together. . If the deal goes through, Sasaki will receive the major league minimum until he becomes eligible for arbitration after three seasons.
“The amount in the bonus pool is very small. My advice to him is not to make decisions based on that because that's where you're going to make your money over the long term of your career,” Wolff said. “It's probably not wise to make short-term decisions.”
Wolf indicated that Sasaki plans to sign with the team between January 15th and 22nd so that he can obtain a work visa that will allow him to start spring training on time.
Wolf was asked why Sasaki would jump to MLB now instead of waiting until he was 25, when he could sign a major contract. Last winter, Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto (whom Wolf also represents) signed a 12-year, $325 million contract, the richest in history by a pitcher.
“Part of it is Japanese culture and part of it is Loki Sasaki,” Wolf said. “There are no absolutes in baseball, and from Loki's eyes there are no absolutes in life…If you look at some of the things that have happened in his life, he doesn't take anything for granted. .”
Sasaki's father and grandparents died in the 2011 tsunami that hit Japan's northeastern region when she was 9 years old. His parents' home was also destroyed in the earthquake, and he had to live with his mother and two younger brothers in a nursing home during the reconstruction.
Mr. Wolf said Mr. Sasaki may consider smaller markets given his negative experience with Japanese media. Much of the criticism stems from Sasaki's desire to move to MLB in recent years. It wasn't until this week that his wish came true and a post was posted from Chiba Lotte.
But Wolf said he would consider all options. The industry perception is that the Dodgers and Padres are the favorites for the pitcher due to geography.
Sasaki has yet to have substantive conversations with Wolf about what he wants from his new team.
“All I can say is he paid attention to how the team performed in terms of overall success, both this year and recently,” Wolf said. “He watches Major League Baseball a lot. He keeps an eye on how his WBC teammates are doing. He talks a lot about the weather, comfort, pitching development, and how other Japanese players in the major leagues are doing.” I asked a question.”
