The Roki Sasaki sweepstakes is reportedly down to three teams, with the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, and Toronto Blues Jays believed to be the finalists.
There might be a very specific reason why he has narrowed his choices down to those three teams.
According to ESPN’s Buster Olney on Tuesday night, Sasaki has come across as a “quiet” and “serious” person. Organizations are interpreting that as him not wanting to be the center of attention on his club, and perhaps preferring to play in either a small market or on a team that has several stars who could take the spotlight away from him.
Sasaki is one of the top pitchers to come over from Japan in recent years and is one of the top free agents on the open market this offseason.
It has long been suspected that the Dodgers would be one of the favorites to land him because they are always the front-runners to land every top player who becomes available. While they would not satisfy the small-market perception, they do have several stars on their roster, including two players who would take most of the headlines even in Japan with Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
The Padres and Blue Jays might not be “small markets” in the traditional sense of what we think of as a small market, but neither team is a high-profile club that dominates headlines or media attention. Both also have top-line players already on their roster.
Because Sasaki is only 23 years old, he is signing as an international amateur free agent, which will put a cap on how much money teams can pay him. That would allow teams to get him at a discounted rate compared to if he was over the age of 25 and was signing strictly as a free agent. When Yamamoto came over to North America a year ago, for example, he signed for $325 million over 12 years.
Sasaki’s signing bonus would be capped at around $10 million.
He is one of the best pitchers in Japan and boasts a 100 mph fastball and split-finger fastball that projects well as a major league pitch.
He was posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines, his team in Japan, in December, opening a 45-day signing window. That window expires on Jan. 23. Sasaki has recently made visits to both San Diego and Toronto.
