Chris Elwell
Staff Writer
With the sweepstakes for Japanese pitching phenom Roki Sasaki nearing an end, there appear to be just two teams in the final decision of where he will pitch in 2025: the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays.
The third finalist to sign Sasaki was the San Diego Padres, but the team has now been told they are out of the running. San Diego waited until the decision for Sasaki to either sign with them or sign elsewhere to pursue other international free agents, which led to the team signing Jhoan De La Cruz and Carlos Alvarez on Friday.
Due to Sasaki’s decision to come stateside a year prematurely, his contract will not have the monetary value that now Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto has with his 12-year, $325 million deal. For a team to sign Sasaki, they will resort to their international signing bonus pool money to bring in the highly-touted right-hander.
The two finalists for Sasaki have been pitching their organizations in a way that would attract him to sign with their team. On Friday, Toronto agreed to a deal with the Cleveland Guardians to acquire an additional $2 million in international signing bonus money on top of the $6.26 million they already had. Starting on Jan. 15, teams can acquire up to 60% additional pool money via trades, making this trade potentially decision-altering.
Los Angeles has the luxury of bringing in Sasaki’s World Baseball Classic teammates, Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, to give him a sense of home and comfortability, and an instant chance of winning a World Series. The Dodgers are at a disadvantage in terms of total pool money, now a full $3 million less than Toronto. However, the team’s situation keeps them as the frontrunner in the sweepstakes.
Sasaki has until Thursday, Jan. 23 to sign with an MLB team before his posting window expires and he returns to the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization (NPB). His decision to come stateside a year before he would have been able to sign as a free agent was a shock to all parties involved, and with his decision coming down to two teams, he will likely sign with a team before that date.
Both Los Angeles and Toronto have not signed an international free agent this offseason to spend all of their pool on a pitcher that has the potential to become one of the league’s best pitchers almost immediately. Sasaki’s fastball regularly reached upwards of 103 miles per hour, a wipeout splitter, and a slider that has generated weak swings. He made his debut in the NPB at just 19 years old and since then has been nothing short of a premier pitcher with a career 2.10 ERA in his four seasons, capped off by his 19-strikeout perfect game in 2022.
Sasaki’s electric arsenal was on full display in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, featuring his signature splitter that played a big role in his dominant start against the Czech Republic. In the first inning of his start against Mexico, Sasaki had baseball fans in awe when he threw a 102-mph fastball by now-Seattle Mariners outfielder Randy Arozarena for the strikeout.
There is no questioning Sasaki’s talent being able to transfer to the major leagues. Whether he chooses Los Angeles or Toronto is still up in the air, but when his decision comes, whoever ends up signing the phenom will add a dominant pitcher to their starting rotation. With under a week left until his decision must be made, the news could break at any moment and send the baseball world into a frenzy.