Major League Baseball investigated to ensure that no team had an early agreement with Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki, and his agent said picking a team will be “like the draft in reverse.”
On the first day of Sasaki’s 45-day window to sign with an MLB team, agent Joel Wolfe said the 23-year-old right-hander is expected to sign soon after the 2025 international signing period starts on January 15, rather than waiting until the January 23 deadline.
“The incentive to sign as early as possible is to get the visa process going so that he would be on time for spring training,” Wolfe explained during a news conference on Tuesday at the winter meetings.
Sasaki helped Japan win the 2023 World Baseball Classic and throws a fastball that can reach 102.5 mph. The 6-foot-2 pitcher is 29-15 with a 2.10 ERA in four seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan’s Pacific League, though his time was affected by injuries.
Since Sasaki is under 25, MLB treats him as an international amateur, which means he falls under signing bonus pools usually reserved for younger Latin American prospects. The Los Angeles Dodgers kept $2,502,500 available in their 2024 bonus pool, which led some teams to wonder if they had already reached a deal.
“There was a lot of discussion in the media, in the league, in NPB about Roki’s situation,” Wolfe said. “There were some accusations, allegations, all of them false, made about predetermined deals, things like that.
However, MLB rightly wanted to make sure that this was going to be a fair and level playing field for everyone, so they did their due diligence and interviewed numerous parties ahead of time to make sure that that was the case.”
Wolfe mentioned that MLB preferred Sasaki’s posting availability to extend into the 2025 period, where team bonus amounts will range from $7,555,500 to $4,146,200.
“My advice to him is don’t make a decision based on that because the long-term arc of your career is where you’re going to earn your money,” he added.
Sasaki was 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA in 18 starts this year, though shoulder inflammation limited his time. He was 7-4 with a 1.78 ERA in 15 starts in 2023, missing time due to an oblique injury. Sasaki pitched a perfect game in April 2022, and Wolfe said his experience in the World Baseball Classic helped convince Sasaki to move to MLB sooner rather than later.
“Roki is somewhat quiet. He has a dry sense of humor. He’s very witty. He’s not verbose,” Wolfe said. “He doesn’t necessarily love people that are verbose. Sometimes I will be talking to him and talking about some very important things, and at the end I’ll ask him if he has any questions and he’ll say: ‘That was a lot of talking.’”
Wolfe mentioned that Sasaki was traveling to the U.S. on Tuesday, and teams will be invited to a central location for meetings starting next week. Sasaki plans to return to Japan before Christmas, stay for a week or two, and then decide whether he wants to visit MLB cities afterward.
Some teams have already sent presentations in the form of PowerPoint slides and videos.
“I think there’s no better place to do it than in New York with the pinstripes,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We recognize that this is a pitcher that has a chance to be an ace over here.”
Sasaki’s life has been marked by tragedy. He was 9 years old when his father and grandparents were killed during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
That experience has influenced his decision to sign with MLB this winter rather than waiting until after the 2026 season, when he would be considered a foreign professional like the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who signed a $325 million, 12-year contract last December.
“If you look at some of the things that have happened in his life, some of the tragedies that have happened in his life, he does not take anything for granted,” Wolfe said.
“It is not an absolute lock, as some people in baseball have assumed, that two years from now he’s going to get a Yamamoto contract. Baseball just doesn’t work that way. … He could have Tommy John surgery. He’s had two shoulder injuries. He’s had oblique injuries.”
Wolfe said he hadn’t discussed Sasaki’s preferred destinations yet, nor was he sure whether Sasaki had a preference for a specific location or a team with a history of Japanese players. Sasaki’s relationship with the media in Japan hasn’t been easy.
“There’s been a lot of negativity in the media directed at him because he has expressed interest at going to play for MLB at such a young age and that’s considered in Japan to be very disrespectful and sort of swimming upstream,” Wolfe explained.
“A lot of people jumped on board there creating some false rumors about him and his family, and it was very detrimental to his mental state.”
Wolfe suggested that Sasaki would “seriously consider” San Diego, where Yu Darvish plays and Hideo Nomo is a special adviser.
“Given what he’s been through and not having an enjoyable experience with the media,” Wolfe said, “it might be beneficial for him to be in a smaller market, but I really don’t know how he looks at it yet.”
Wolfe also mentioned that Sasaki may not start every fifth day at first since, in Japan, most starters have six days between outings. “I would think that any team would ease him into it,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe’s advice to Sasaki is simple: “At the end of the day, you know it when you see it and when you see it, just tell me,” he said.
