BURSTDALLAS – Roki Sasaki, the Japanese phenom whose overpowering fastball has MLB teams lining up for his services, could start taking meetings with suitors as soon as next week.
Just 23 years old, Sasaki has succeeded at the highest levels of Japanese baseball and he has now officially been posted by his former NPB team, the Chiba Lotte Marines. Not only that, his decision to pursue a major-league career now means he must first sign a minor-league deal with a bonus no larger than $7.55 million.
Under those circumstances, every MLB team should have interest in Sasaki, who would have had a chance at hundreds of millions if he had waited just two more years until he was 25. Relative to his talent level, he has a chance to be a massive bargain.
As a result, the competition should be intense. While many see the Dodgers and Padres as leaders for the right-hander, there’s lots of upside in trying to persuade him to sign elsewhere. And, thankfully for interested teams, he hasn’t ruled out the East Coast given the availability of direct flights to Japan from many cities.
Speaking to a large media contingent at the Winter Meetings on Tuesday, agent Joel Wolfe offered some insight into Sasaki’s preferences while acknowledging that there were still many unknowns this early in the process.
So: who is Sasaki the person, what matters to him and how will teams try to win him over? These are pressing questions, and while the Blue Jays are seen as long-shots, they’re clearly interested after sending multiple top executives to scout him personally in recent years.
“Roki is somewhat quiet,” Wolfe said. “He has a dry sense of humour. He’s very witty. He’s not verbose. He doesn’t necessarily love people that are verbose. Sometimes I’ll be talking and talking about 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.’”
According to Wolfe, Sasaki has paid close attention to how teams have done both this year and in years past. He asks questions about weather, comfortability and pitching development while following other Japanese players in the major leagues.
Also notable: his often challenging experiences with the media in Japan.
“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,” Wolfe said. “A lot of people jumped on board creating some false rumours about him and his family, and it was very detrimental to his mental state.”
“Given what he’s been through and not having an enjoyable experience with the media, it might be beneficial for him to be in a smaller market,” Wolfe continued. “But I really don’t know how he looks at it yet.”
Despite that uncertainty, a general picture emerged as Wolfe spoke. A talented, young pitcher is excited about the chance to pitch in the major leagues. He cares about winning and building on the skills that have allowed him to get this far, but another hostile media market’s probably not a good fit.
Any pitch from the Blue Jays should keep those elements in mind – and it should probably be concise. Speculatively, it could sound something like this, perhaps accompanied by some visuals:
Roki, we’re impressed by who you are as a pitcher and person and we want to work with you to take your career to the next level. Development is really important to us, which is why we’ve built a state-of-the-art development facility in Dunedin, Fla. It took years to build and cost us $100 million, but in recent seasons it’s helped elevate pitchers like Robbie Ray, Alek Manoah and Yusei Kikuchi into Cy Young contenders. We also redid our ballpark in Toronto to make sure players are supported year-round. At your own pace, our staff would love to work with you.
We’ll be honest: last year was really tough for us. We made the playoffs three of the previous four seasons, and thought we were going back, but it just didn’t go our way. But we’re determined to get back there and we don’t plan to wait. We’ve already started pushing forward by acquiring all-star second baseman Andres Gimenez. He’s one of many young players on our team and we think you’d fit right in with our young core.
Lastly, we think Toronto the city is a great fit for you. It’s one of the most multicultural major-league cities there is with food from all over the world and direct flights to Japan. Supporting player families is really important here. And while it’s a big city, it’s not a harsh media market like Boston or New York. After Kikuchi struggled in 2022, fans stuck with him and embraced him. Wherever we go and whenever we win, the fanbase shows incredible support.
For now, we’ll leave it there. We think you’re already a great pitcher, but we think your greatest moments are ahead and we’d like to have that start in Toronto. Let us know if you have questions. We’d love to show you around in person.
Whether it’s credible and intriguing or completely unpersuasive would be for Sasaki to decide with Wolfe’s guidance. After an initial round of pitches in a central location, it’s possible the pitcher will visit cities in person. A trip to January in Toronto wouldn’t exactly be great timing weather wise, but for a Blue Jays team that could use impact talent there’s little harm in making a pitch and seeing what happens.
“My advice to Roki is to go in with an open mind,” Wolfe said.
