(Photo credit score: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)
The world champion Los Angeles Dodgers reportedly are among the many Major League Baseball groups to have met with Japanese star Roki Sasaki.
News of the assembly between the previous Chiba Lotte Marines right-hander — posted to MLB groups by the membership earlier this month at baseball’s winter conferences — was reported by The Orange County Register on Saturday.
The Dodgers be a part of an inventory of suitors to have met with Sasaki that’s believed to incorporate each New York groups, the Texas Rangers, Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants. The San Diego Padres are also regarded as in pursuit of the 23-year-old Sasaki.
The pitcher is predicted to signal with a membership quickly after the opening of the 2025 worldwide signing interval on Jan. 15.
Sasaki will not be in line for an enormous payday with this primary MLB contract. Foreign professionals beneath 25 and with fewer than six years’ expertise are restricted in what they’ll earn, that means Sasaki will not be in line to match the 12-year, $325 million contract Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed with the Dodgers final December.
Sasaki is seen as having one of many prime younger arms on the earth with a 100 mph fastball and lethal sinker.
In 2024 with the Marines, he was 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA, 129 strikeouts and 32 walks in 111 innings. In 4 years, Sasaki has thrown 394 2/3 innings and has a 29-15 file with a 2.10 ERA, 505 strikeouts and 88 walks.
At the winter conferences, Dodgers president Andrew Friedman did not disguise what workforce officers consider Sasaki.
“He’s incredibly talented. Really physical. Incredible carrying fastball. His split’s a well-above-average major-league pitch. He’s worked hard on a slider, and it’s a really good pitch,” Friedman stated. “He has talked about his desire to be the best pitcher in the world, and we believe that he is capable of being the best pitcher in the world.”
Giants workforce president Buster Posey additionally gushed over Sasaki.
“Obviously, like probably all the other 29 teams, it would be a dream for us to get this guy,” Posey stated earlier this month. “Just tremendous upside. Not too many arms in the world like his. He’s a tremendous talent. He’s 23 years old. It’s fun to dream on. It’s fun to think about him at Oracle Park and him pitching deep into a game late in the year, the place rocking. We’d be over the moon to add a guy like that.”
–Field Level Media