Japanese pitching star Roki Sasaki says he’s joining the Dodgers

Roki Sasaki, the prized Japanese pitcher who has had scouts drooling over his potential since high school, has chosen the Los Angeles Dodgers as his major league team, he announced Friday on Instagram.

Sasaki called it “a very difficult decision, but I will do my best to make it the right decision when I look back on my baseball career.”

The Dodgers, long considered Sasaki’s favorites, had recently become one of three finalists for the 23-year-old right-hander, along with the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres. The Padres began closing deals with their potential international signees in the Dominican Republic on Friday morning, a clear sign in the industry that they were onto Sasaki. The Blue Jays acquired $2 million in international bonus space — along with center fielder Myles Straw — from the Cleveland Guardians in hopes of further luring Sasaki.

In the end, it didn’t matter. A Dodgers team coming off a World Series title with a team featuring fellow Japanese Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto has once again landed one of the biggest prizes of the offseason.

With the Dodgers, Sasaki joins a team that has built a reputation as one of the best at developing talent and expects to field an incredibly deep rotation in 2025. Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow return from the group from last year. Ohtani, who will return to duty as a two-way player, will be added. Blake Snell signed a five-year, $182 million contract in November. Clayton Kershaw is also expected to return at some point. And younger arms such as Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Bobby Miller remain in the organization, making it easy for the Dodgers to field a six-man rotation that would reduce Sasaki’s acclimation process.

Because he is under 25 and has spent fewer than six seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball, Sasaki will essentially sign a minor league contract and follow the path of a player selected in the amateur draft – possibly being offered to the minors, projected to earn near the major league minimum in his first three major league seasons and unable to become a traditional free agent until he reached six years of service.

Teams were limited to giving Sasaki only their international bonuses, which ranged from about $5.1 million to $7.5 million early in the signing period.

Sasaki features a fascinating splitter that has been hailed as one of the best secondary pitches in the world and pairs it with a fastball that reaches 100 mph, adding a slider that has also been considered a plus pitch. In four seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines, Sasaki posted a 2.02 ERA, 0.88 WHIP and 524 strikeouts against 91 walks in 414 2/3 innings.

In an April 10, 2022 start against the Orix Buffaloes, Sasaki pitched a perfect game while setting an NPB record with 13 consecutive outs. Seven days later, he took the mound again and fired eight perfect innings before being pulled. The following spring, Sasaki showcased his talents on the world stage, forming a star rotation alongside Ohtani, Yu Darvish, Shota Imanaga and Yamamoto for a Japanese team that won the World Baseball Classic.

For years, scouts and major league executives have descended on Japan to catch a glimpse of Sasaki and salivate at the thought of him one day being assigned. When it finally happened in early December, more than 20 teams made initial presentations, doing so with videos, letters and even books. Sasaki visited his agency’s Los Angeles headquarters, Wasserman, later that month and held meetings with at least eight teams: the Dodgers, Padres, Blue Jays, New York Yankees, Mets of New York, the Chicago Cubs, the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants. .

Earlier this week, five of those teams were informed they were out of the running, prompting Sasaki to hold follow-up meetings in Toronto, San Diego and Los Angeles before making his decision.

Sasaki was scheduled to select his new team between January 15, the start of this year’s international signing period, and January 23, when his assignment window expired. His presence in the international amateur market has left potential signatories of the three finalists in the dark over deals agreed to verbally years in advance, causing particular consternation in the Dominican Republic. The Dodgers, Padres and Blue Jays not only had to free up their international bonus pools to be able to land Sasaki, but also consider the possibility of trading for additional cap space in hopes of luring him further.

Sasaki played in Summer Koshien, the major Japanese high school tournament, and was ranked No. 1 overall in the NPB in 2019. The Lotte Marines treated him carefully, limiting him to bullpen sessions and simulated games in 2020 and limiting his workload as much as possible. afterwards. Sasaki’s numbers were down a bit last year, with his ERA sitting at 2.35. His four-seam fastball went from averaging around 98 mph to 96. At one point, shoulder fatigue showed up. There are concerns about how Sasaki will handle a major league workload, and many will recognize that his command needs improvement.

But few people doubt his ceiling.

According to several prominent evaluators, over the next few years, Sasaki could be an annual Cy Young contender.