Sasaki returns to Japan to analyze next phase of the process, agent
20 Major League teams have shown interest in Roki Sasaki, according to his agent Joel Wolfe.
The initial list of Major League teams that expressed interest in Roki Sasaki was extended to 20, his agent, Joel Wolfe, of the Wasserman Group, reported this Monday.
Sasaki, the talented young starting pitcher, will join one of those teams sometime in the second half of January and is currently back home in Japan considering the second phase of his highly scrutinized recruiting process.
Wolfe didn’t provide many details during a conference call with media, only to state that Sasaki has met with “a number of teams” over the past few weeks and will make his decision sometime between Jan. 15, when the new season opens. international signing period, and January 23, when Sasaki’s announcement window closes.
Market size, life dynamics and even pedigree will not be the top priority.
“He doesn’t seem to look at it the way other players typically do,” Wolfe said. “He has a more global, long-term view of things. I think Roki is also very interested in pitching development and how a team is going to help him improve, both in the near future and throughout his career. “He didn’t seem too concerned about whether a team had Japanese players on their team or not, which, in the past, when representing Japanese players, was sometimes an issue. That was never a topic of discussion.”
At 23 years old, Sasaki is already one of the best pitchers in the world, with a triple-digit fastball and a devastating splitter. With the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Japanese Professional Baseball League for the past four seasons, Sasaki posted a 2.10 ERA with 505 strikeouts against just 88 walks in 394⅔ innings. Since he would be classified as an international amateur (meaning he would cost teams their international bonus funds and essentially sign a minor league contract, unable to become a traditional free agent until he accumulated six years of league service older), the bidding for their services was expected to be fierce.
Wolfe experienced that at the beginning of Sasaki’s 45-day window on Dec. 15, shortly after sending a letter to all teams asking them to submit information if they were interested. Within days, recruitment offers flooded their offices.
“Although the quality and uniqueness varied, it was something really special,” Wolfe said. “The level of preparation, the videos… I mean, it was like the Roki film festival. There were very detailed PowerPoint presentations, short films. Some teams made actual books. There were people who had clearly spent hundreds of hours researching Roki and his personal history, his professional history”.
Various reports have named the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants among the teams granted initial meetings. And while there has been much speculation that the offer for Sasaki could come down to the Dodgers and Padres, Wolfe noted that it was important to his client that everyone operate “on a level playing field,” prompting specific demands for those initial meetings: that all will last less than two hours and will take place in Wasserman’s offices in Los Angeles. Sasaki emphasized that current players would not attend, although some submitted their presentations by video.
“I think the teams that met with him would tell you that he was engaged, that he asked questions and that he gave each team something he called a homework assignment, the team he was going to meet with,” Wolfe added. . “And I think it was a great opportunity for the teams to really demonstrate what they specialize in. Without giving the actual details of what that task was, all the teams were given that same task, and it allowed them to demonstrate how they can analyze and communicate information with it.” and really showed where he was coming from in the analysis and creating his selection criteria to analyze the teams.”
Sasaki’s next step is not yet fully defined. It could mean adding a handful of additional meetings or, more likely, narrowing down your list. You may also visit certain cities as part of your final decision-making process. For now, Wolfe said, Sasaki is not expected to choose a team when the new international signing period opens on Jan. 15. Although Wolfe didn’t specifically mention it, using the extra eight days would allow teams to negotiate for additional money from the international bonus pool that would essentially act as Sasaki’s signing bonus. International bonus funds for 2025 range from approximately $5.1 million to $7.5 million, but teams can negotiate for up to an additional 60%.
Had Sasaki waited two more years to turn 25, he could have signed a nine-figure contract similar to the one Yoshinobu Yamamoto got from the Dodgers last offseason. Instead, he followed in the footsteps of Shohei Ohtani, an international amateur when he joined the Los Angeles Angels in December 2017. Wolfe believes being around Ohtani and Yu Darvish during the World Baseball Classic in 2023 and watching Shota Imanaga dominate with the Cubs as a rookie in 2024 prompted Sasaki to challenge himself sooner.
The sooner he could face the best hitters in the world and utilize the resources of the major leagues, the better he would do.
“Roki is by no means a finished product,” Wolfe concluded. “He knows it, and the teams know it. He’s incredibly talented; we all know that. But he’s a guy who wants to be great. He doesn’t come here just to be rich or get a big contract. He wants to be great. He wants to be one of the best in history. I see it now, and he has articulated it. And to be that, he knows he has to challenge himself.”
