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The Los Angeles Dodgers had been interested in Roki Sasaki long before this offseason. While excitement surrounded the Japanese phenom signing with a team this winter, the Dodgers had been scouting Sasaki since he was in high school.
Before he was the crown jewel of the MLB international signing class, Sasaki was a talented teenager who attracted several scouts from the Nippon Professional Baseball league in Japan.
Although Sasaki’s free agent process included meetings, presentations, and homework assignments, the Dodgers had been prepared long before then. It was actually during Sasaki’s senior year of high school when then-Dodgers scout Galen Carr saw him pitch for the first time.
“It was a hyper-mobile athlete. Just folds up so easily, and he has long limbs and the ball comes out easy. And he’s touching 100 (mph),” Carr recalled. “As an athlete, as a kid with poise and presence on the mound from a raw-stuff standpoint, it was as good as you’ll see from someone that age.”
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman spoke about the conversations he had with Carr six years ago regarding the Japanese phenom.
“Those conversations in 2019 were just about how incredibly talented this pitcher from Ofunato is, and someone that we should keep very close on our radar over the coming years,” Friedman recalled of the communication with Carr.
Though many baseball fans believed the Dodgers some how cheated in landing Sasaki, it actually took years of effort to convince the 23-year-old he was meant to be a Dodger.
When Sasaki’s announcement came, it signified the six years of scouting the starting pitcher had paid off.
“It was jubilation, just incredible excitement,” Friedman said. “There were a lot of people kind of around outside the offices when we got the text and then the call from (agent) Joel Wolfe. And it immediately kicked into this is a big responsibility to partner with a talent like this and help him in reaching his incredibly lofty goals — which is a lot of responsibility, and it’s something that we are going to take very seriously and do everything in our power to fulfill everything that we said to him in terms of the player care and what we do for players and families and our ability to help make players better.”
Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
