The Mets had a meeting with Roki Sasaki on Thursday, reports Andy Martino of SNY. They’re the second team that has been publicly revealed to meet with the NPB star. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told reporters (including MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch) on Wednesday that Sasaki had scheduled an in-person meeting with the club. It’s not clear when that will take place.
Virtually every team would love to land Sasaki. It stands to reason that most, if not all, clubs have at least prepared a pitch they can make to the 23-year-old righty. Sasaki and his representatives at Wasserman presumably don’t intend to meet with every team over the next few weeks, though.
Agent Joel Wolfe spoke with media (including MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes and Steve Adams) at the Winter Meetings. Wolfe indicated that Sasaki would speak with teams in person at a central location in the United States throughout this week. He’s slated to return to Japan for the holidays but could come back to the U.S. to view the cities of the finalists thereafter.
This is only the first run of presentations. Many people consider the Dodgers or (to a lesser extent) the Padres to be the favorites, though Wolfe vehemently denied last month that there was any kind of handshake agreement with Los Angeles already in place. Wolfe suggested at the Winter Meetings that Sasaki could benefit from landing in a city that doesn’t have a large media contingent, though he stressed that was solely his opinion and that he and Sasaki had yet to discuss that in great detail.
Sasaki’s posting window opened on December 9. He must sign with an MLB team by January 23 but cannot sign until after next year’s international amateur period opens on January 15. He could reach an unofficial verbal agreement before that point, however. Sasaki’s bonus will be hard capped by MLB’s amateur signing limitations.
Teams can acquire up to 60% of their bonus allotment via trade. Those trades cannot begin until the 15th. Sasaki’s maximum potential bonus would be $12.0888MM. He’ll likely sign for a fair bit less than that, since it’d require a team with the highest initial pool (one of Milwaukee, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Minnesota, Miami, Cincinnati, Detroit, or the Athletics) to trade for the maximum amount and commit their entire pool to Sasaki. The Yankees and Mets each have just under $6.2616MM in their starting pool. If they traded for 60% more space, they’d be able to offer just over $10MM.
Baseballisthebest
Getting the teams he won’t be signing with out of the way first.
Pads Fans
Who do you think he will be signing with and why?
KennyF’nPowers
Gotta love a dope like this clown who knows nothing. When a player like this becomes available and money is not a consideration you really don’t know where he’s gonna sign.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
Roki sasakis top to contenders are the dodg- *cough* RAYS and the padr- I MEAN ATHLETICS!!!
Miken31
Baseball is the best:
We’re all entitled to our opinion, but you have no idea what this guy wants in a team. If he wants the West Coast, well, then nobody can change geography. However, if he wants to lead a pitching staff of an up-and-coming team with an owner who will give him a huge NEXT contract and an organization that can develop him, the Mets are not a bad choice. I’m not saying he will go there, but I wouldn’t entirely discount it.
Ham Christ
Mets develop pitching? Maybe develop a solid marketing plan.
Miken31
Ham Christ:
Huh?
Ham Christ
“…and an organization that can develop him, the Mets are not a bad choice.”
Mets don’t develop pitching. They could develop a solid marketing strategy for him, but they aren’t helping him develop.
Miken31
Ham Christ:
So I’m referring to the fact that the Mets helped some pitchers last year who have not had recent success have some success. That’s called development. Jeremy Hefner and their pitching lab are developing a reputation. You may or may not know about that.
Ham Christ
Every couple of years some pitching coach gets glorified because one or two player have a good year. Then we forget about them. Pitching lab seems to be a very trendy term now. Which every team has.
Who are these struggling pitchers the Mets turned around?
Miken31
Ham Christ:
So take into account that Steve Cohen has more money than anyone and is probably investing incredible resources into that pitching lab. So if you don’t think it’s different, then that’s on you. You’ll learn. And in case you don’t pay attention, which apparently you don’t, the Mets turned around Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, and David Peterson to name a few.
Ham Christ
Manaea wasn’t turned around. He continued his performance from the second half with the giants. Severino performing like a 4-5 starter after recovering from injury isn’t turned around. And Peterson has always been on the Mets so not a good development record.
Don’t care about money. You’re just assuming he’s doing that.
Miken31
Ham Christ:
His second half from the Giants? They put Manaea in the bullpen and nobody wanted him. So you’re just speaking nonsense at this point. Severino stayed healthy all year and performed solidly and then pitched well in the playoffs, more than he had done in years with the Yankees. And yes, Peterson was always with the Mets, but we were talking about since Cohen and Sterns got involved with the pitching lab, which is recent. You’re trying to make a point to fit your narrative . But it’s not working.
Pads Fans
Stearns is one of the best at developing pitchers. His time in Milwaukee speaks for itself. Now he is the POBO of the Mets. Sasaki would do well to work with Stearns staff and in his pitching lab.
That said,. he would do just as well with the Padrs under Niebla and Darvish’s tutelage and in the Padres pitching and biomechanics lab.
Dorothy_Mantooth
I’m still shocked that Sasaki decided to come to MLB this year. He’s limiting his earnings over the next 6 seasons considerably and risking $100’s of millions of dollars by doing so. If he stayed in Japan for two more seasons, he’d be a lock for a $300M+ contract (health dependent of course). Instead, he’s signing up for a small signing bonus ($6-$8M), 3 seasons of league minimum salaries and 3 seasons of arbitratio salaries..If he’s a star in MLB, he could potentially earn $50M-$60M over these six seasons and risking an arm injury that could lose him $200M+ in career earnings.
I’m not sure if this is legal, but perhaps he’s asking teams if they’d be open to an early contract extension to buy out his arbitration years and some free agent years if he performs well in 2025? If he’s as dominant as we think he is, he could get a $200M contract extension after 1-2 seasons in MLB and still become a free agent in his early 30’s. That would make a lot more sense than playing out his first 6 years with standard salaries. Unlike Ohtani, he doesn’t have dominant offensive skills to fall back on where two major arm surgeries won’t limit his free agent earnings.
Wire to wire 2024
It was said in previous articles the league can veto extensions if they feel it’s circumventing the rules around international signings etc
Pads Fans
After 1 year, the team can sign him to an extension without incurring the wrath of Manfred. I would think that if they signed him to a $300 million extension at that point that MLB might still balk at approving the contract.
YankeesBleacherCreature
@Dorothy_Mantooth
Some players just want to compete. If one excels, the money will come.
KhaluChris
I don’t believe you’re able to promise additional compensation or extensions when negotiating under these circumstances. You’re also not even allowed to guarantee playing time. Weird process.
YankeesBleacherCreature
@KhaluChris
Because any handshake future extension jeopardizes the integrity of NPB’s posting system and undermines their league. MLB does not want to ruin that relationship with Japan.
LongTimeFan1
@Dorothy_Mantooth,
Sasaki’s had a lot of tragedy and heartache in his life – like losing his family in the tsunami when he was a boy – and so life to him is short, bad things can happen at any time and thus he doesn’t want to wait or risk blowing an opportunity that could be taken away while waiting.
Niekro floater
Just building up the drama … where will he sign ? He wants to be part of something special. Go Dodgers !
cooperhill
Baseball desperately needs a salary cap!
Blue Baron
Which will never happen.
KnicksFanCavsFan
@coop
he’s going to be earning near nothing, so the Pirates can sign them too.
Pads Fans
Sasaki’s signing won’t impact any teams MLB payroll much. He will sign a minor league deal and get a signing bonus. Then if he is assigned to the majors he will get paid MLB minimum in 2025.
metsin4
What would having a salary cap do in this situation? Nothing.
Biggie22
Word is he’s a big fan of Terry Francona & the Reds are a legit dark horse with their international pool dollars…
cooperhill
Baldi Francona!
Wire to wire 2024
A man can dream, him and hunter would be a fun 1-2 to watch
Low IQ Angels Management
Say Halo to the new Angels ace!!! Perry has this wrapped up.
toycannon
Get him signed, Mr Dipoto. Then, and only then, you can trade one of the current starting pitchers for an infield bat. Or 2 bats.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
I wish it would be awesome for sasaki to replace Castillo (and be able to get rid of Hancock and trade other starting prospects)
We have more selling points than most teams but ichiro isn’t enough
BronxBombers23
Yankees will meet with Sasaki in Cal. Remember what Cash did say about the meeting with Yamamoto in Cal…
CNichols
What did Cash say about meeting with Yamamoto in Cal? I feel like I remember him saying something about how when Yamamoto came to New York for his meeting it was rainy/bad weather and it seemed like he was implying that was the reason he signed somewhere else
BronxBombers23
“ I remember sitting out in Beverly Hills me Boonie and Blake we’re sitting up on the penthouse waiting for our slot to go over and make our presentation and it was such a beautiful environment the weather was perfect and I said this is what we‘re competing with right now“ and then the weather in New York…
IsIt2025Already?
Ben Cherington on vacation in the Catskills.
Citizen1
Dodgers have only $5 mil in bonus pool money. Id like to see the Braves sign him. Probably going to be the mariners though.
Pads Fans
One of the most overlooked things here is that Sasaki is already making more off the field than he will be paid by whatever team signs him right now.
Before he signed with the Marines when he was drafted in Japan, Dentsu had already given him a 300 million Yen or $2 million USD endorsement deal That was in 2019. In 2024 he earned about 1.5 billion yen or $10 million USD per year.
Whatever the signing bonus that a major league team gives him, it won’t approach what he will make in endorsements for several years. As soon as he signs with an MLB team, those endorsements will grow as well.
Unlike Ohtani, Sasaki had a team of advisers around him before he even signed with the Marines. MLB is just the next step in his plan for generational wealth. He is already well on his way with career endorsement earnings over the past 5 years exceeding 3 billion yen.
To me, the way he has handled his career both on and off the field points to him signing with a big market team, but in his agent’s comments at the Winter Meetings and several interviews with Sasaki himself, we find that Sasaki seems to resent the relentless nature of the Japanese press.
Maybe the Padres get lucky and he wants to play with his mentor and one of his heros, Yu Darvish, and also one of his Team Japan teammates Yuki Matsui in a slightly smaller market and be less in the media’s eye. As a Padres fan, I hope that is the case.
Bivouac-Sal
@pads
It is no doubt also attractive to Sasaki to become part of the longest running non-championship streak in ML baseball.
Pads Fans
1st person that I have ever muted after seeing their first post.
JudgementDay
Brewers are the same as the Padres. So technically Padres tied for 1st for longest running non-championship. Mariners are third by a few years.
Bivouac-Sal
Facts are hard
KhaluChris
Based on what I’ve read about Roki Sasaki, I would guess his most likely suitors (in order) to be the Padres, Athletics, Rays, Giants, Angels, Diamondbacks, Pirates, Tigers, Orioles & Reds. I know I just named half the league but, I would bet that it won’t be any of the big dogs like the Dodgers, Yankees, Mets or any bigger market team.
Bivouac-Sal
Chris
Clearly you know what you are talking about.
EricM8
The dodgers, yankees, mets, giants all signed QO players, so they do lose some of their pool money.
As of now, both SF & NYM have 2 of the top 3 IFA candidates on their radar prior to Sasaki.
So it’ll be interesting how much money Sasaki commands vs a team potentially passing up on a highly touted IFA player of the ’25 class.
CNichols
He’s valuable enough that a team would break off their other deals to pay him.
Interestingly though the Padres and Dodgers don’t have anyone near the top of the 2025 class and they usually invest heavily in IFA.