From Thomas Harrigan:
Ace Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki appears headed to the Majors next season.
Sasaki, the consensus top young pitcher in Japan, will be posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball, the team announced.
“Since I joined [the Marines], I have continued to listen to my future MLB challenges, and I am grateful to the team for officially allowing me to post,” Sasaki said of his posting.
“There were a lot of things that happened, but I was able to get to this point by focusing solely on baseball, with the support of my teammates, staff, front office, and fans, so I don’t have any regrets in my baseball career.”
Sasaki, who turned 23 on Nov. 3, made his NPB debut in 2021 and has dominated the competition over four seasons with the Marines. With a fastball that touches 100 mph, a devastating splitter and an improving slider, Sasaki has posted a lifetime 2.02 ERA with 524 strikeouts and 91 walks in 414 2/3 innings.
The righty pitched the 16th perfect game in NPB history against the Orix Buffaloes on April 10, 2022, while also tying the NPB record with 19 strikeouts and setting a record with 13 consecutive K’s. He followed that up with another flawless start against the Nippon Ham-Fighters, tossing eight perfect innings with 14 K’s.
Sasaki experienced a bit of a down season by his standards in 2024, with his ERA (2.35), WHIP (1.04), strikeout rate (28.7%), walk rate (7.1%) and K/BB ratio (4.03) all regressing and his average fastball velocity dropping from 98.9 mph to 96.9 mph year over year.
Still, Sasaki should inspire an all-out pursuit reminiscent of Shohei Ohtani’s initial contract with the Angels, in league-wide interest — and the limited financial scope. Ohtani agreed to a $2.315 million signing bonus with the Angels in December 2017.
As I noted earlier, I have no problem if all of the major open market Japanese free agents want to go to the Dodgers, as at least the Dodgers have had to PAY for them, so there’s obviously SOME sort of cap to their ability to collect them ALL, but with Sasaki being capped at making the minimum for the first few years of his deal (and controllable by arbitration for six years in total), some team is going to get a major talent windfall for basically no money, and if he chooses the Dodgers, who he almost certainly WILL be choosing (as, well, come on, they have Ohtani and Yamamoto and JUST WON THE WORLD SERIES), that suuuuucks.
But, hey, maybe he’ll surprise us and choose the Yankees (he will not).
And it didn’t used to be that they all went to the Dodgers.
Or the West Coast at all.
Why is that the case now, when it WASN’T the case BEFORE? What’s changed?
It is easier to get back to Japan from the west coast. The dodgers have been very good and high profile for the last decade, the Yankees aren’t THE team to win anymore. Weather. The other west coast teams and underwhelming, aside from SD.
The West Coast has long been a draw. Hideo Nomo. Ichiro Suzuki. Kaz Sasaki. Hiroki Kuroda.
But yes, the Dodgers being the clearly best team on the West Coast is also a major draw for the Dodgers specifically. And now, of course, it is their two Japanese superstar players.
But how many times are they flying back to Japan in a year?
Matsui, Tanaka and Igawa, that ain’t chopped liver.
But it is something with a side of chopped liver.
they apparently have a lot of intl money free. if they don’t make the best offer i will be severely disappointed. even more than if they fail to retain soto, since they have so many holes that can be filled by FAs.
amazing how many bad contracts are on the books though, they should stop doing that.
hicks 8
dj 15
stroman 18
rodon 30
more than the A’s and some others?
The “best offer” is immaterial here, as Sasaki isn’t going to pick his team based on who can offer him the most money out of the small amount of money teams are allowed to offer. He’s going to pick his team based on where he feels like playing, which is why the Dodgers are the odds on favorite.
he’s gonna make a shit ton of endorsement money so he’s fine net-wise.
He will definitely get endorsement money, but I wonder HOW much. I still think it makes a lot of sense for him to just wait two years and get the huge contract AND the endorsement money.
it makes sense from a fiscal pov to wait but he’s after something bigger imo, glory. it is in this respect I think the Yankees have a non insignificant chance to sign him
There’s got to be some wink nudge stuff that’s possible, like in the NCAA. Accommodations, travel, a concorde?
the monster of the reiwa era!
Carlos Estevez on Cash radar?
https://x.com/jonmorosi/status/1854955922155601930?s=61&t=fhOaqwtc8q2TMSXUDRjPeg
I imagine he has all the top relievers on his radar, hoping they won’t get monster deals, and then he’ll try to get them cheaper. Estevez’ age might make him affordable.
You think if Hal offers DJ an assistant GM job he’d retire?
Thirty million dollars is hard to turn down.
MLB is going to need a rule, no more than 2 posted players (until they reach MLB FA) per team.
Just make him a FA so nobody gets him for cheap.
Don’t like that, they are MLB unproven.
That’s how it is for posted players over 25 though. Established Japanese (or Korean) players coming over at 23/4 is not irregular and it’s unfortunate and wrong that they are treated like team controlled assets rather than free agents.
The old posting system needed to be fixed, but a big loophole was left that isn’t good for anyone except the MLB teams.
Any anecdotes of sports announcers betting heavily to the point where it clearly affects their job?
Brent Musburger and Al Michaels both enjoy a wager. In the latter’s case hasn’t really affected anything. In the former’s case I don’t think he was forced out or anything when he left the game, but he did go on to start VSIN, the betting media network that used to have a channel on Sirius.
So next season looks like Durbin the early favorite to take over 2B, Jasson in LF/CF, Judge in CF/RF, Jazz at 3B, Volpe at SS, and Wells at C. Need a 1B and whatever Soto does.
Offseason over. Move on.
Why do you say it looks that way?
Boone just gave Durbin a LOT of praise, and Durbin just had a great game in the Fall League All-Star game.
The Yankees, by the way, acquired Durbin for Lucas Luetge. Why can’t the Yankees ever have a GM who can pull off deals like THAT?
What Brian wrote. Boone/Cash also said Jasson will be a big part of 2025. Those are the two only real openings other 1B. I assume Soto returns, but if he doesn’t, I would expect an Alonso signing, Judge moving to RF and acquiring a LF/CFer. If Soto re-signs with the Yankees, I think their best outfield defense is moving Judge to LF with Jasson in CF.
We shall see.
Brutal scouting report on Alonso, and he is a terrible fielder.
He might help with the White Whale
https://x.com/ChrisKirschner/status/1856039383960375545?t=Nkx0zIunwbBk7G8gj5N2Gg&s=19
Yeah, the players do all seem to love Boone, so at least on this front, it’s genuinely good to have confirmation Boone will join Hal (even though one would expect the manager to join such a pitch anyway).
Poor fundamentals? We dont need no stinking fundamentals.
https://x.com/ChrisKirschner/status/1856018534653894752?t=F0iJkaTspW2hkfq4DR0ZSg&s=19
Heyman nypost.com/2024/11/11/spo… The biggest obstacle to keeping Juan Soto in NY (with either the Yankees or Mets) could well be the motivated, deep-pocketed Blue Jays
That would likely mean they [the Jays] wouldn’t sign Vlad after the 2025 season when he becomes a FA.
I could see the Blue Jays being willing to bid at the same level as the Yankees and Mets, but I can’t see them going HIGHER.
If Boone thinks the Yanks fundamentals were good and they won games because of them, he’s dumber than any of us thought. (Also I’d like a sniff of what he’s taking.)
But if Boone is the reason Soto stays here, then that alone might offset his stupid managing. But I’m not sure. Soto WAR vs Boone blown games.,,hmmmm.,,
And if Soto stays here because of Boone, he’s not a very smart person because Boone is getting in the way of him winning a championship.
1 boone is a moron
2 part of this is the bias of when you see something good happen like clay holmes getting a double play to end an inning or a big verdugo hit and one thinks that is the talent level of the team.
lots of people fall guilty to this. it’s probably like a gambler remembering that time they won 20$ on slots and forget about the 200$ they lost.
and thus all of verdugos soft contact is wiped away…
while I’m uncertain iof the extent japanese population and presence influences rokis decision, it should be noted that presence is, perhaps, more eclectic, and iconoclastic here than in, say, la. nyc has some of the most foremost artists – japanese and otherwise – in the world including jazz, food, visual arts, etc.
should this be a factor in rokis decision he’ll choose the Yankees
You KNOW Sasaki is a crazy jazzbo
Sits in on drums at the Blue Note
Gleyber removes all Yankee stuff from his social media. If they bring Soto back, I will totally allow that it makes no sense to re-sign Gleyber, but man, they better sign Soto.
I think Gleyber was always gone – especially once the Yankees sloppiness was called out. Maybe it wasn’t fully deserved, but he was absolutely the poster child for the Yankees sloppy defense, inconsistent effort and poor baserunning over the past few years.