Star Japanese pitcher chooses Los Angeles as his major league home, joining former World Baseball Classic teammates Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
The most-expected outcome has happened, with the Dodgers landing a highly-prized player they’ve coveted for years. Roki Sasaki, the young ace right-hander from Japan, has chosen to begin his major league career in Los Angeles, he announced on Instagram on Friday.
“I have signed a minor contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers,” Sasaki wrote. “It was a very difficult decision, but I will do my best to make it the right decision when I look back after my baseball career.
“I want to slip my sleeve on the Dodgers uniform at the opening conference, thanking everyone who has supported me this far.”
Sasaki had a 2.02 ERA in his four seasons in Japan with the Chiba Lotte Marines, with 524 strikeouts and 91 walks in 414⅔ innings. That included a 2.35 ERA in 18 starts in 2024, with 129 strikeouts and 35 walks in 111 innings.
Having just turned 23, Sasaki gives the Dodgers a major-league-ready pitcher for his prime seasons. And because he didn’t wait until turning 25 before coming stateside, Sasaki isn’t a true free agent, like Yoshinobu Yamamoto was last offseason. Instead, Sasaki was considered an international amateur, and subject to MLB’s restrictive bonus pools.
The Dodgers, Padres, and Blue Jays were the three reported finalists for Sasaki, who met with all three teams in person in the last week. All three teams put their other potential international signings on hold at the beginning of the period, which opened Wednesday, in waiting for Sasaki’s decision.
By Friday, the Padres signed a pair of big-ticket international signings, reportedly narrowing the field of Sasaki suitors to just Toronto and Los Angeles. The Blue Jays also made a trade to add $2 million in bonus pool space, giving them over $8.2 million to spend compared to $5.1 million for the Dodgers.
“He’s a really big priority. He’s someone we’ve watched closely for years, have tremendous respect for. He’s supremely talented, but a guy that — as good as he is and the ingredients he has in place — we feel like with our pitching guys, there’s even more potential in there,” Dodgers president Andrew Friedman said of Sasaki during the winter meetings on December 10. “He’s talked about how he wants to be the best pitcher in the world, and we think he’s definitely capable of that.”
In the last 14 months, the Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani, Yamamoto, and now Sasaki, giving them three of the biggest Japanese stars in baseball. It seems even more fitting that the Dodgers will open their 2025 season in Japan, playing three games against the Cubs — who have Japanese stars Seiya Suzuki and Shota Imanaga — on March 18-19 at the Tokyo Dome.
Sasaki will soon join a Dodgers rotation with Yamamoto and eventually Ohtani (after he completes his rehab from September 2023 elbow surgery), plus Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and a host of others.
Chiba Lotte officially posted Sasaki on December 9, and his deadline to sign with an MLB team was January 23. The Dodgers will pay a posting free to Chiba Lotte of $1.3 million, equal to 20 percent of Sasaki’s signing bonus.
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