Last winter, we wrote about how Major League Baseball's offseason had been dominated by international free agents. At the time, there was two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani; there was highly decorated right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto; and there was dynamic outfielder Jung Hoo Lee. Each was from either Japan or South Korea, and each eventually inked MLB contracts worth at least $100 million apiece.
This offseason, there's Roki Sasaki, the 23-year-old Japanese ace being posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines. With an upper-90s rising fastball and a devastating splitter/forkball, he immediately becomes one of the hottest talents on the market, especially considering the fact that he comes cheap: due to his age, Sasaki can only sign as an amateur international free agent, meaning that his contract will be limited by IFA pools that max out around $7.5 million.
Sasaki will get the headlines until the day he signs -- and probably for years after that -- but he's not the only one out there. To honor that, CBS Sports has compiled notes on four other international league players worthy of your attention this offseason who spent the past year as part of either Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league or as part of South Korea's Korea Baseball Organization.
1. Hye-seong Kim, 2B, Kiwoom Heroes (KBO)
Front offices have had ample exposure to Kim, 25, since he was a member of the same Heroes lineups that featured free-agent shortstop Ha-Seong Kim and Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee. He's a career .304/.364/.403 hitter who homered a personal-best 11 times in 2024.
Clearly Kim isn't much of a power hitter. His bat-to-ball skills, baserunning, and defense all grade as above-average, however, giving him a variety of ways to contribute to his team. He's swiped at least 30 bases in three of the last four years (the exception being a 25-steal season in 2023), and he's logged enough innings at short that some enterprising club might entertain auditioning him there and seeing if he can stick.
2. Kyle Hart, LHP, NC Dinos (KBO)
MLB is an imitator league. If an acquisition or an approach works for one club, it's only a matter of time before other teams emulate it. (The exception being if it costs the owner too much money.) There've been enough instances of fringe MLB pitchers leveling up after a stint in South Korea -- Merrill Kelly and Erick Fedde included -- for teams to pursue their own success story. Enter Hart.
Hart will turn 32 later this month and has all of four big-league appearances to his name (all coming with the Red Sox during the pandemic season). He headed to Korea after bouncing around a few other Triple-A affiliates, finding great success overseas by posting a 2.69 ERA and a 4.79 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 157 innings. He even surrendered the lowest rate of home runs among Dinos starters.
According to one front-office source, Hart's arsenal boasts a low-90s fastball, a good changeup, and two breaking balls (one being a sweeper). His control grades as above-average, and he projects as a plausible back-end starter.
3. Shinnosuke Ogasawara, LHP, Chunichi Dragons (NPB)
On the subject of MLB being a copycat league, you can envision clubs flocking to another small lefty NPB pitcher with the hopes of landing their own Shota Imanaga. Alas, such a comparison would serve as little more than a burden to Ogasawara.
Ogasawara, 27, generated a 3.67 ERA and a 2.39 strikeout-to-walk ratio over nearly 200 career appearances. While his command remained excellent, his strikeout rate cratered to a career-worst 5.1 per nine innings. Free agent Naoyuki Uwasawa, who signed with the Rays last offseason and was later shipped to the Red Sox, experienced a similar strikeout plummet in 2023; Uwasawa subsequently found it tough to establish traction, even in Triple-A, and was limited by that and injury to two MLB appearances.
Of course, that's just a single data point. We don't expect it to scare teams away from Ogasawara. Nevertheless, we do think it's worth wondering what, exactly, his game looks like against MLB bats.
4. Tomoyuki Sugano, RHP, Yomiuri Giants (NPB)
You may recall Sugano's name from a few years ago, when he attempted to come to MLB only to return to NPB after failing to reach an agreement before the 2021 season. He's set to again attempt the leap -- this time as a 35-year-old with nearly 300 professional appearances to his name.
Sugano had a highly accomplished career in Japan, making eight All-Star Games and winning a pair of MVP and Eiji Sawamura Awards. (The Sawamura is essentially NPB's version of the Cy Young Award.) He has a broad arsenal, including a low-90s fastball and a splitter, that plays up thanks to his above-average command. Sugano struck out only 6.4 batters per nine this past season, however, limiting his ceiling.
