Roki Sasaki's window to meet with teams around Major League Baseball will close in 10 days. Soon, we will know which club is the winner of the offseason's most fascinating free agent sweepstakes.
Sasaki, a talented right-handed pitcher from Japan, was reported last week to have serious interest from a "mystery team" beyond the group of seven widely reported to have met with him this offseason: the Dodgers, Padres, Giants, Mets, Yankees, Cubs, and Rangers.
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On Monday, Ken Rosenthal and Andy McCullough of The Athletic reported the Toronto Blue Jays met with Sasaki in Canada. That would make them the first team to secure a meeting with the free agent from Japan beyond his agent's home base of Los Angeles.
Sasaki will not sign before next Wednesday when the 2025 international amateur signing period begins. He's currently in the middle of a 45-day negotiating window with major league teams that ends Jan. 23.
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Because he is limited to signing for the major league minimum salary in addition to a signing bonus — currently in the $5-7 million range — Sasaki is available to all 30 MLB teams on a salary they can afford. Not all were granted in-person meetings, however, and it stands to reason that any team granted an audience with the pitcher generated some mutual interest with their initial presentation.
Two 2024 playoff teams, the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies, submitted a presentation to Sasaki's agent Joel Wolfe but were reportedly not granted in-person meetings. As of Dec. 30, the Boston Red Sox were in a similar position.
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As noted by The Athletic, the Jays' rotation already projects to include Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Bowden Francis, Chris Bassitt, and Yariel Rodríguez. Alek Manoah is expecting to join that group after the All-Star break.
Signing Sasaki could prompt Toronto to trade from its rotation depth, or employ a six-man rotation at the outset of the 2025 season. Japanese teams typically employ six starters, so this could be a valuable concession to Sasaki.
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Sasaki is among the most coveted pitchers on the free agent market. When he was 20, Sasaki threw a 19-strikeout perfect game for the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2022. In his next start, he threw eight more perfect innings in a row. In the 2023 World Baseball Classic, his fastball sat 100 mph.
Last season, Sasaki went 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA in 18 starts for Chiba Lotte, with 129 strikeouts in 111 innings. The Marines formally posted him in December.
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J.P. Hoornstra writes and edits Major League Baseball content. A veteran of 20 years of sports coverage for daily newspapers ... Read more