Agent – Roki Sasaki returns to Japan to consider the next phase of the process – Blogging Sole

The initial list of major league teams expressing interest in Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki expanded to 20, his agent, Joel Wolfe of the Wasserman Group, said Monday.

Sasaki, the highly talented young starting pitcher, will join one of those teams in the second half of January and is currently back home in Japan, pondering the second phase of his highly scrutinized recruiting process.

Wolfe did not provide many details during a media conference call, only to state that Sasaki met with ‘a number of teams’ over the past few weeks and will make his decision between January 15, when the new international signing period opens, and January 23, when Sasaki’s assignment window closes.

Market size, life dynamics and even winning tradition will not be the top priority.

“He doesn’t seem to see things the same way as other players,” Wolfe said. “He has a global vision of things in the longer term. I think Roki is also very interested in pitcher development and how a team is going to help him improve, both in the near future and over the course of his career. He didn’t seem too concerned about whether or not a team had Japanese players, which in the past when I represented Japanese players was sometimes an issue. This has never been a topic of discussion.

At 23 years old, Sasaki is already one of the best pitchers in the world, possessing a triple-digit fastball and a devastating splitter. While playing for the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball over the past four seasons, Sasaki posted a 2.10 ERA with 505 strikeouts and just 88 walks in 394⅔ innings. Because he would be classified as an international amateur – meaning he would cost a team its international bonus pool and essentially sign a minor league contract, not allowing him to become a traditional free agent until he had accumulated six years of service in the major leagues – the bidding for his services was expected to be fierce.

Wolfe experienced this at the start of Sasaki’s 45-day posting period on December 15, shortly after sending a letter to each team asking each club to send information if they were interested . In a few days, recruitment offers flooded its offices.

“Even though the quality and uniqueness varied, it was really something,” Wolfe said. “The level of preparation, the videos – I mean, it was like the Roki film festival. There were very in-depth PowerPoint presentations and short films. Some teams have produced real books. They had people who had clearly spent hundreds of hours researching Roki and his personal journey, his professional journey.

Various reports have listed the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs And San Francisco Giants among the teams that were granted early meetings, none of which have been confirmed by Sasaki’s camp. And while there has been plenty of speculation that the offer for Sasaki could go to the Dodgers and Padres, Wolfe said it’s important to his client that everyone operates “on a level playing field.” , which prompted specific requests for these first meetings: that they all last within two hours and take place in Wasserman’s Los Angeles offices. Sasaki stressed that current players would not be in attendance, although some sent their presentations via video.

“I think the teams that met with him would tell you that he was engaged, he asked questions – and he gave each team something that he called an assignment, the team that he was going to meet with,” he said. Wolfe said. “And I think it was a great opportunity for the teams to really show what they specialize in.” Without giving away the actual details of this mission, each team was given the exact same mission, and it allowed them to show how they can analyze and communicate information with him and really showed where he was coming from by analyzing and creating his selection criteria in the review of teams.

Sasaki’s next step is not yet completely defined. This might mean hosting a small handful of additional meetings or, more likely, reducing your list. Visiting certain cities as part of your final decision is also possible.

For now, Wolfe said, Sasaki is not expected to pick a team when the new international signing period opens on Jan. 15. Although Wolfe didn’t specifically note it, using the extra eight days would allow teams to trade for additional international bonuses. money that would essentially serve as Sasaki’s signing bonus. International bonus pools for 2025 range from approximately $5.1 million to $7.5 million, but teams can trade up to an additional 60%.

If Sasaki had waited two more years to turn 25, he could have signed a nine-figure contract similar to Yoshinobu Yamamoto obtained from the Dodgers last offseason. Instead, he followed in the footsteps of Shohei Ohtaniinternational amateur when he joined the Los Angeles Angels in December 2017. Wolfe believes that being with Ohtani and Yu Darvish during the World Baseball Classic in 2023 and watching Shota Imanaga Dominating with the Cubs as a rookie in 2024 pushed Sasaki to challenge himself sooner.

The sooner he could face the best hitters in the world and utilize major league resources, the better off he would be.

“Roki is by no means a finished product,” Wolfe said. “He knows it and the teams know it. He is incredibly talented; we all know it. But he’s a guy who wants to be great. He doesn’t come here just to be rich or get a big contract. He wants to be great. He wants to be one of the greatest of all time. I see it now, and he expressed it. And to achieve this, he knows he must challenge himself.