Japanese pitching sensation Roki Sasaki will sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he announced on his Instagram page Friday evening. The highly coveted 23-year-old right-hander joins the Dodgers after a stellar four-year stint with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Nippon Professional Baseball. Sasaki’s posting triggered a 45-day negotiating window with all 30 MLB teams. If no agreement was reached within that timeframe, Sasaki would have returned to the Marines for the upcoming season.
Los Angeles Dodgers, RHP Roki Sasaki agree to deal, per Sasaki’s Instagram. pic.twitter.com/XTl9nMvHSy
— MLB (@MLB) January 17, 2025
The Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays were reported to be the finalists, with the Dodgers and Padres seen as co-favorites for most of it.
After receiving his signing bonus, Sasaki will have the same status as any other rookie. He’ll go through pre-arbitration and arbitration years before he hits free agency following six years of MLB service time.
Dodgers Win Roki Sasaki Sweepstakes
As Sasaki is under 25 and has less than six years of service time in a foreign league, his contract will be limited by MLB’s international bonus pool rules. This means he won’t command a nine-figure deal, unlike Yoshinobu Yamamoto‘s $325 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, there’s no question Sasaki has one of the best right arms in baseball. Major league evaluators have scouted Sasaki since he was a teenager in Ofunato, Japan.
In 2022, Sasaki threw a 19-strikeout perfect game for Chiba Lotte in which he registered 13 consecutive strikeouts. In his next start, Sasaki tossed eight perfect innings with 14 strikeouts before being pulled. He even began blowing the doors off Randy Arozarena and Alex Verdugo in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
Sasaki had a 2.10 ERA over four seasons in NPB. This year, injuries and declines in velocity, stuff, and strikeout rate raised questions, but Sasaki remains immensely desirable. Sasaki did not sign his 2024 contract until January, just before the Marines began spring training. In 111 innings, he posted a 2.35 ERA, struck out 129, walked 32, and gave up two home runs.
Sasaki will look to join a rousing success of Japanese players in MLB, one of the game’s biggest stories of the past decade. Pitchers Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Shota Imanaga Yusei Kikuchi and outfielders Seiya Suzuki and Masataka Yoshida have all gone through the posting system. Right-hander Kodai Senga joined the New York Mets without a posting fee after 11 seasons with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
Where Sasaki Fits in the Rotation
With Sasaki on board, the Dodgers bolster their rotation with a potential ace. In the Dodgers, Sasaki joins a team that expects to field an incredibly deep rotation. Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow return from last year’s group. Ohtani, who will resume his duties as a two-way player, will be added. Blake Snell signed a five-year, $182 million contract in November. Clayton Kershaw is expected to return at some point, too.
Other pitchers including Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Bobby Miller are still afloat. It will make it easier for the Dodgers to field a six-man rotation that could lessen Sasaki’s adaption.
Main Photo: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports
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