One of the top questions concerning the rest of Major League Baseball's offseason is just what, pray tell, Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki will prioritize when he chooses his next employer. Sasaki's agent Joel Wolfe attempted to provide some insight into how his client views and thinks about that decision on Tuesday, when he held a press availability session at the Winter Meetings in Dallas, Texas.
"He has paid attention to how teams have done as far as overall success, both this year and in the past. He does watch a lot of MLB," Wolfe explained. "He's paid attention to what his [World Baseball Classic] teammates have done. He asks about weather, comfortability, pitching development. He has been watching what other Japanese players in the major leagues are doing and how they are doing."
Among his WBC teammates are Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who both play for the Dodgers, and Yu Darvish, a member of the Padres.
Sasaki, 23, is classified by MLB as an amateur free agent because of his youth and his lack of ample service time. That means his earning power is restricted to just what teams can offer him from their amateur international free-agent bonus pools. Those pools reset when a new cycle begins on Jan. 15. As such, it behooves both Sasaki and his Nippon Professional Baseball league team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, to wait until after Jan. 15 to sign with a club, so as to maximize his signing bonus. His 45-day window is open until Jan. 23.
Sasaki is considered to be the top pitcher in the world not already under the employment of an MLB organization. CBS Sports ranked him as the seventh best free agent this winter on the strength of his power arsenal and outstanding track record. (Our rankings are based in part on expected average annual value, meaning that he would've ranked much higher if he were a traditional free agent without the aforementioned restrictions.)
The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres have been regarded as two of the favorites to land Sasaki's services.
