Roki Sasaki, the highly sought after Japanese ace, will be sent to MLB

Roki Sasaki, a leading pitcher in Japan and the no. 3 ranked player i Athletics top 40 MLB free agent big board, is about to make his long-awaited jump to Major League Baseball.

Chiba Lotte Marines, Sasaki’s club in Nippon Professional Baseball, announced early Saturday morning that they will post the 23-year-old right-hander, making him available to MLB teams in what is expected to be a wide-open sweepstakes for his services.

Because of his age, Sasaki will be considered an international amateur in MLB’s system, meaning he will earn the minimum salary and his bonus will be limited. Each MLB team is allocated a dollar amount to spend on international amateurs and cannot exceed that, although they can trade for some extra space. Teams at the low end are awarded $5.1 million for 2025 and $7.6 million at the high end. Therefore, both Sasaki’s salary and the 20 percent fee to be paid to Lotte Marines will be relatively small figures.

It’s a similar situation to the one Shohei Ohtani faced when we arrived in the US, which stands in stark contrast to last winter’s top prize in the Japanese market, Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

“He’s not the finished product that Yamamoto is,” a club official told me recently Athletics. “But there aren’t many people in the world who are more talented.”

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Sasaki has been coveted since his high school days, and few pitchers from Japan will arrive in the United States with as much hype. His fastball was clocked in the triple digits. In a recent analysis, Athletics Eno Sarris noted that even with a slight step back in speed and results for last season, Sasaki still showed signs of translating his success stateside. Only Juan Soto and Corbin Burnes rank ahead of Sasaki on Athletics free agent placements.

“If he was one in the amateur draft, he would easily be a top-five draft pick,” said a senior executive in the sport. “Probably better.”

It is unclear which international class Sasaki will be a part of. MLB’s 2024 international signing period runs through Dec. 15, and the 2025 period begins Jan. 15. The clubs are already committed to players in both classes, but Sasaki is a special talent that the teams have prepared for the court.

It’s unclear exactly when that process will begin, but once Sasaki is posted, he will have 45 days to sign. He is expected to join an MLB team in 2025. The news broke at 1 on the US East Coast, which was at 15 in Chiba.

While Sasaki’s arrival in the MLB this offseason was long speculated, it also looked like it could wait a few years. Had Chiba Lotte delayed until 2026, when Sasaki was 25, both he and the club could have made significantly more money. Sasaki would then be considered a “foreign professional” in the eyes of MLB’s collective bargaining agreement, and he would not be subject to the international bonus pool. That’s the classification Yamamoto fell into last offseason when he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers for $325 million.

The Dodgers, home to Shohei Ohtani in addition to Yamamoto, have often been linked to Sasaki. The New York Mets and Chicago Cubs have also followed him closely, i.a. Meanwhile, the Yankees and Padres have scouted the Pacific Rim extensively and have been aggressive in that market.

NPB players must play for nine years in the league to become an international free agent and freely sign with an MLB team without being put out to bid. Because the wait is so long, the best Japanese players typically arrive in the US via the courier system.

Sasaki pitched for Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic and drew attention for hitting triple digits with his fastball. He also throws a slider and a splitter. His durability is probably his biggest question mark.

(Photo: Sam Navarro / USA Today)