Roki Sasaki, the prized Japanese pitching prospect who has had scouts drooling over his potential since highschool, has chosen the Los Angeles Dodgers as his main league crew, he announced on Instagram on Friday.
Sasaki known as this “a really troublesome choice, however I’ll do my greatest to make it the precise choice after I look again after my baseball profession.”
The Dodgers, lengthy considered because the favorites for Sasaki, had just lately emerged as one in every of three finalists for the 23-year-old right-hander, together with the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres. On Friday morning, the Padres started agreeing to offers with their potential worldwide signees within the Dominican Republic, a transparent signal all through the trade that they had been out on Sasaki. The Blue Jays thusly acquired $2 million in international-bonus-pool house — together with heart fielder Myles Straw — from the Cleveland Guardians in hopes of attractive Sasaki additional.
It finally didn’t matter. A Dodgers crew coming off a World Series title with a roster headlined by Japanese countrymen Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto once more landed one of many largest prizes of the offseason.
In the Dodgers, Sasaki joins a crew that has constructed a status as probably the greatest at creating expertise and one which expects to area an extremely deep rotation in 2025. Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow return from final yr’s group. Ohtani, who will resume his duties as a two-way participant, will likely be added. Blake Snell signed a five-year, $182 million contract in November. Clayton Kershaw is anticipated to return in some unspecified time in the future, as nicely. And youthful arms comparable to Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Bobby Miller stay within the group, making it straightforward for the Dodgers to area a six-man rotation that might reduce Sasaki’s acclimation course of.
Because he’s below 25 years previous and spent lower than six seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball, Sasaki basically will signal a minor league contract and comply with the trail of a participant chosen within the newbie draft — in a position to be optioned to the minors, scheduled to earn near the foremost league minimal throughout his first three main league seasons and unable to grow to be a standard free agent till attaining six years of service time.
Teams had been restricted to giving Sasaki solely their worldwide bonus swimming pools, which ranged from about $5.1 million to $7.5 million at the beginning of the signing interval.
Sasaki contains a mesmerizing splitter that has been lauded as one of many world’s greatest secondary pitches and pairs it with a fastball that reaches 100 mph, including a slider that has additionally been deemed a plus pitch. In 4 seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines, Sasaki posted a 2.02 ERA, a 0.88 WHIP and 524 strikeouts towards 91 walks in 414 2/3 innings.
In an April 10, 2022, begin towards the Orix Buffaloes, Sasaki pitched an ideal sport whereas setting an NPB document with 13 consecutive strikeouts. Seven days later, he took the mound once more and fired eight excellent innings earlier than being faraway from his outing. The following spring, Sasaki showcased his skills on a world stage, forming a star-studded rotation alongside Ohtani, Yu Darvish, Shota Imanaga and Yamamoto for a Japanese crew that received the World Baseball Classic.
For years, main league scouts and executives descended upon Japan to catch a glimpse of Sasaki and salivated over the potential for him sometime being posted. When it lastly occurred in early December, upwards of 20 groups made preliminary pitches, doing so with movies and letters and even books. Sasaki flew to the L.A. headquarters of his company, Wasserman, later that month and carried out conferences with at the least eight groups — the Dodgers, Padres, Blue Jays, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants.
Earlier this week, 5 of these groups had been knowledgeable they had been out of the working, prompting Sasaki to take follow-up conferences in Toronto, San Diego and L.A. earlier than coming to his choice.
Sasaki wanted to pick out his new crew between Jan. 15, the beginning of this yr’s worldwide signing interval, and Jan. 23, the expiration of his posting window. His presence within the worldwide newbie market left potential signees of the three finalists in limbo on offers which are verbally agreed to years prematurely, inflicting specific consternation inside the Dominican Republic. The Dodgers, Padres and Blue Jays wanted to not solely release their worldwide bonus swimming pools for the potential of touchdown Sasaki, however entertain the potential for buying and selling for extra house in hopes of attractive him additional.
Sasaki starred in Summer Koshien, the outstanding Japanese highschool event, and was taken No. 1 total within the NPB draft in 2019. The Lotte Marines dealt with him fastidiously, proscribing him to bullpen classes and simulated video games in 2020 and limiting his workload every time potential thereafter. Sasaki’s numbers had been down a bit final yr, his ERA rising to 2.35. His four-seam fastball went from averaging roughly 98 mph to 96. At one level, shoulder fatigue cropped up. There are considerations about how Sasaki will deal with a serious league workload, and plenty of will acknowledge that his command wants enchancment.
But few doubt his ceiling.
Within these subsequent handful of years, a number of outstanding evaluators consider, Sasaki may very well be an annual Cy Young contender.
