February 20, 2025

90 thoughts on “Yankees.com: Yankees out of the Sasaki sweepstakes (source)”

  2. Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and Toronto need to pool their resources and invest in tectonic technology that can move Japan into the North Atlantic.

  3. I would go to the west coast if I were a player and money weren’t a factor. This doesn’t seem like his thought process though. He still has Toronto on his list of 3 along with the Dodgers and Padres.

    As someone who hasn’t lived in the US for 20 years, I could also see it as an either West coast or not USA thing. My top 3 would probably be similar to his. Maybe Seattle mixed in there, too.

    1. That’s the interesting thing, though, in that there’s no way that he seriously is “down to three teams,” right? There’s no way he doesn’t know where he’s going already. So I imagine he picked either the Padres or the Dodgers, and threw in the Blue Jays as another “finalist” so no one could say it was a done deal that he was going to the West Coast (despite it being a done deal).

      I’m hoping he surprises me!

    2. As a former 20-something, I wouldn’t underestimate the dumbness that comes with that age. I could see him picking more or less randomly. No idea if it is true or not, but it was reported at the time that Ohtani picked the Angels because he liked their spring training complex.

      Sasaki also probably has less knowledge of US cities than you. If you were picking between Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka, and Okinawa, but couldn’t make up your mind, Japanese people would probably be pretty confused by your thought process.

  6. Maybe the Cubs can sign Bregman, and trade the Yankees Hoerner. Hoerner would fit in well at second base. They could do:

    Jazz 3B L
    Judge RF R
    Bellinger CF/LF L
    Stanton DH R
    Wells C L
    Goldschmidt 1B R
    Dominguez LF/CF S
    Volpe SS R
    Hoerner 2B R

    That Volpe/Hoerner/Jazz 8-9-1 would be a CRAZY nice stretch of speed. And it would be an EXCELLENT defensive team.

    Hmmm…Hoerner’s OBP isn’t awful, maybe you lead him off and Jazz bat second, and have Judge bat third?

    1. At this point, with them seemingly not pursuing any 3b or 2b options, I am mystified. The only thing that makes sense is Ha Seong Kim at this point. Other than that, or making a big splash with Bregman, I can’t see what the Yankees are thinking. Do they really think DJLM still has something left in the tank? If their plan was to just hope for the best, why not at least offer Gleyber the QO.

    2. I know it’s not the late 90s/early 00s anymore and giant bats don’t grow on trees, but it kills me that the Yankees always seem to have hollow bats at LF, 1b, and DH. If ever there was a place for an all bat, no glove player it is those three.

    1. I know right. I’m STILL waiting on Sadaharu Oh’s apology to Randy Bass and Tuffy Rhodes.

    1. That is awful news.
      But the other thing doesn’t matter. His legacy was fully established ages ago.

    2. The Blue Jays announced that they have acquired outfielder Myles Straw, cash, and 2025 international bonus pool space from the Guardians. Cleveland receives a player to be named later or cash in return. Per Ben Nicholson-Smith and Shi Davidi of Sportsnet, the Jays are adding $2MM of pool space in the deal.

    3. The Blue Jays are so much further away than a stud pitcher, though.

      But yes, I get the dilemma.

      Good for Cleveland for taking advantage of the Blue Jays’ situation. If they get Sasaki, wow!

    4. Are they taking advantage of it, though? a PTNBL or 50K isn’t much. Seems like a lose/lose for Cleveland.

    7. Yeah, the Straw contract is TERRIBLE. It’s definitely worth losing the international money to dump it for Cleveland.

      For a team with REAL money, then yes, I could see the argument that you wouldn’t want to give up the international money, but for a cheap team like Cleveland, dumping the Straw contract is HUGE.

  14. the rules are so dumb. i am really not sure why roki wouldn’t want to stay in japan and then collect his 300M like yamamoto in 2 years. instead he will be wage limited for another five?
    plus, he has four years of professional service time. he should either be allowed free agency or go into the draft to help end the misery of teams like the CWS or DEN. What a silly system.

    1. The same reason Ohtani did the same thing. They want to play in the MLB NOW.

      It’s a loophole in the system because no one expected a player, never mind two, to give up hundreds of millions of dollars.

    1. I’m shocked — shocked — to find that out. In the good old days the Yankees had a farm team in Kansas City now The Dodgers have a whole baseball mad country. Personally I think given his level of accomplishment he should’ve been a free agent then at least the Dodger would have had to pay him.

    2. What is it with the Japanese players and the endless courtship thing it’s like a fucking Regency novel

    3. With Yamamoto, at least, he tricked people into thinking other teams had a chance, and wasn’t just using them to up the Dodgers’ offer. Here, since it was a minimum deal, it was just absurd. There was no way it wasn’t going to be the Dodgers, but he did a fake production to say, “You guys were wrong that it was obviously the Dodgers!” Just fucking absurd.

    6. “Biggest fucking charade ever.”
      “tricked people into thinking other teams had a chance”
      “What is it with the Japanese players and the endless courtship thing it’s like a fucking Regency novel”
      |
      It is a matter Japanese personal honor.
      You wouldn’t understand.

  18. That’s ok but Sasaki should be wooed the way Soto was wooed. If the Jays were wiling to throw money at him but the Dodgers couldn’t afford to take on another big contract then he’d be a Jay or a Giant or whatever.

  19. Pinstripe Alley: Baseball Prospectus’ Top 101 prospects Jasson Domínguez comes in at No. 24 on this year’s slate. Yankees’ 2023 first-round pick George Lombard, Jr. also makes an appearance, sneaking in at the 100th spot.
    Spencer Jones just missed the top 101. Impressive farm system bodes well for the near future.

  20. MLB owners outside the Dodgers need to create a rule, no posted players may be signed by a team within 3 -4 years of signing another such player. George would have nearly single-handedly pushed such a rule through.

    1. Wouldn’t it be simpler to just push the age down to 23 that you become a legit free agent? I don’t mind the Dodgers getting all the Japanese guys, but they should have to PAY for them. If they did, they probably COULDN’T have afforded Sasaki on top of Yamamoto and Snell, and then Sasaki would have gone elsewhere.

    2. I kind of do mind. They didn’t earn Japan’s proximity through cleverness or investment, they didn’t do it by being a better organization. (I mean, maybe San Diego loses to LA for reasons like that.)

    3. Agree with Brian, the issue with Sasaki is really an issue with the interaction between the posting system and the IFA rules.

      If the Dodgers can afford to sign every Japanese player for open market money, good for them. But Sasaki is making league minimum for 2-3 years and the upfront cost isn’t really significant either.

  21. From 1949-1964 the AL was a clown show with the Yankees winning every years except two, and in one of those years they won 103 games. Baseball introduced a draft to stop what was going go kill the sport. They need to do something similar here.

  22. Sure.

    There has been no shortage of speculation that Roki Sasaki’s decision to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers wasn’t the result of a meticulous free-agent process, but rather a handshake deal made months or even years earlier.

    MLB is doing its best to dispel that notion.

    A day after Sasaki announced he was joining the Dodgers, Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times reported the league had already investigated the matter and came away with no evidence of wrongdoing:

    According to a league official, MLB conducted an investigation prior to authorizing Sasaki’s posting to “ensure the protocol agreement had been followed.” Another person with knowledge of the situation, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said the league interviewed “numerous parties” in its probe, but found no evidence to substantiate the rumors.

    Obviously, that’s not going to do anything to placate the Dodgers’ biggest critics. Disgraced former MLB general manager Jim Bowden has also claimed multiple teams believe there was a pre-arranged deal.

    https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb-investigation-reportedly-found-no-evidence-of-roki-sasaki-dodgers-handshake-deal-before-he-was-posted-231112216.html

  23. Would it be against the rules for him have a handshake deal with the Dodgers? The problem is that given his age, experience and accomplishments he should’ve been a free agent. I doubt even the Dodgers would’ve sprung for another big contract. Three years in the Japanese Majors makes you a pro. Is he treated the same as a 16 year old Dominican kid?

  24. I would like to register my opinion that although the Sasaki charade was annoying I don’t care at all that he went to the Dodgers

    If the Yanks were getting these players we wouldn’t care

    Any team that takes exception should Git Gud

    1. If the Yankees were getting these players from Japan, it would be despite the geography, and we’d certainly have no complaint.
      If the Yankees were getting these players because there was a large baseball-playing island nation located conveniently about 100 miles out of New York Harbor, then sure, we might like it, but we’d also know it was unfair and that rules would be instituted to deal with the obvious problem.

    2. I don’t think we should penalize players by preventing them from playing where they want. The draft is bad enough.

    3. No they’re just penalizing players by preventing them from getting paid anywhere near what they’re worth.

    4. Yeah, lowering the age to 23 doesn’t penalize anyone. If Sasaki then decides to take a huge paycut for the honor of being a Dodger, then fair enough.

  27. To Herr Dickhole’s point there are six teams on the west coast, more-or-less, equidistant from Japan, it everyone chooses the Dodgers because they are good. This doesn’t change things for the rest of the teams, but if teams invest in being good they will be more attractive to players.

    Incidentally, I’ve decided to invest in getting good at Yahtzee in an effort to be more attractive to Japanese baseball players. Yes I do live on the west coast so that helps.

    1. The crazy thing is that they still have a lot of holes! I don’t even like Tanner Scott that much. It seems like one of the reasons they got him was legit so that a rival wouldn’t, since he had some success against Ohtani.

    1. Same guy who fumbled the ball earlier in the 4th quarter.

      All 4 losing teams out gained the winning teams this weekend.

    3. It’s a serious allegation, but I would point out that the the first case may have been completely baseless, you don’t just believe the accuser.
      And the second article is written by the plaintiff’s law firm. If a criminal case were being brought – and the allegations are surely grounds for one – you’d think they’d have mentioned it.
      Again, the allegations are certainly serious, but you don’t convict someone based on allegations. These both look to be civil cases seeking money.

    4. There was a book about the gay bashing at the time. I think it was called “Damned Yankees” but I can’t find it on Amazon. A few years ago the Yankees put a plaque or something in the Stadium honoring victims bashed for protesting in support of gay rights and I remember wondering if it was in part Cashman trying to atone for what was described in that book.

    6. As for Mo, I don’t know, incidents of inappropriate sexual behavior towards children at religious institutions is so rare that’s it’s almost unheard of.

    7. I imagine gay bashing was the rule not the exception at the time, which still makes it disgusting. The case was dismissed in 2003.

    8. Again, Clay, that article doesn’t introduce damning new evidence – it also just keeps quoting the plaintiff’s filing. Of course the plantiff’s filing sounds damning – that’s the lawyers doing their job.
      Phrases like “knew or should have known” are assertions with specific legal implications, not facts.
      No one’s accusing Mariano of having done any of this. The two claims are that maybe he should have known (even if he didn’t), and that perhaps he tried to settle the matter in house. And that he didn’t take any other measures.
      Yes, Calla, sexual abuse in religious contexts is so common it’s hard to fathom. That doesn’t make the accusations (not of sexual abuse) leveled against Mariano true (or false).

  34. The issue with Yates is pretty clearly that if the other MLB teams thought he was that good, they would have signed him, ya know? No one really thinks Yates and Scott are worth the money, so the Dodgers get them.

    Now, of course, the one thing this means is that the Yankees really, really need to spend a LITTLE more fucking money at this point. Just fucking sign Bregman.

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