Mets, Yankees gear up for wooing of Japanese sensation Roki Sasaki
Roki Sasaki pitches during Japan's Pool B game against the Czech Republic at the World Baseball Classic at the Tokyo Dome, Japan, Saturday, March 11, 2023. Credit: AP/Eugene Hoshiko
DALLAS — Mere days after the climax of the Juan Soto sweepstakes, the Mets and Yankees — and a bunch of other teams — are about to go head-to-head again for a world-class talent. And this time money will barely matter.
Righthander Roki Sasaki, the 23-year-old flamethrowing Japanese sensation, was made available to major-league teams Tuesday, the start of a highly unusual free agency featuring an eminently rare dynamic in the world of professional sports: a financially level playing field.
Both New York teams are among those who hope to woo Sasaki, who has 45 days to choose a stateside club and will begin meeting with teams next week. The Mets were readying to submit to the pitcher’s representatives a Japanese-language presentation — a virtual first impression — in the initial hours of being allowed to communicate with Sasaki.
“We’re certainly going to give it our best shot,” said president of baseball operations David Stearns, who went to Japan to watch Sasaki in September. “Very difficult in these processes to truly understand what a player’s preference is. This isn’t a normal free-agent recruitment process.
“All 30 clubs are going to do their best to demonstrate to the player through a PowerPoint presentation or video why their situation is the right one. And all 30 clubs are going to be doing it with a little bit of a blind spot in terms of fully understanding what is motivating the player, what the player is looking for. We’ll do our best. It’s certainly an attractive opportunity.”
Even Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe of Wasserman, said he didn’t totally know what variables will drive Sasaki’s eventual decision.
During a 28-minute, Sasaki-specific news conference during day two of MLB’s annual winter meetings, Wolfe indicated that a team’s overall on-field success, track record with Japanese players and recent history of developing pitchers likely will factor in. But so will Sasaki’s comfort level with that city, with a small or midsize market perhaps representing an ideal “soft landing” for Sasaki, who felt attacked by the media in Japan, Wolfe said. It was “very detrimental to his mental state,” he added.
“Might be [a non-big market team],” said Wolfe, who also represents the Mets’ Kodai Senga and Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto. “I’m not saying it will be. But I really don’t know how he looks at it yet.”
What does that mean for New York?
“I think he could handle it, just based on what I’ve seen,” Wolfe said.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said: “There's no better place to do it than in New York with the pinstripes. And I think we have a lot to offer him in not only his development, but I think it's clear we're talking about a potentially dominant major-league starting pitcher.”
Sasaki is no sure thing, though. In four seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines, he averaged 104 innings per season, limited in part by injuries. He has dealt with multiple shoulder issues, including inflammation/soreness in 2024, as well as an oblique strain the year prior. Wolfe described that history as “nothing serious."
When he has pitched, though, Sasaki has been dominant, posting a 2.10 ERA and 0.89 WHIP. He once followed a 19-strikeout perfect game with eight perfect innings in his next start.
“He still has a lot of development to go,” Wolfe said.
The process now: Sasaki and Wolfe will meet with teams in person at a central location starting next week. That is, as Stearns noted, an “invitation-only process,” so there are no guarantees the Mets, Yankees or anybody else will get a chance to make their pitch.
“We want him to know we have the resources and the ability to make the transition as smooth as possible,” Stearns said.
Sasaki intends to return to Japan before Christmas for a week or two, Wolfe said. Upon coming back to America in January, he’ll either visit cities he is considering and/or have follow-up meetings with clubs. He has until Jan. 23 to sign a contract.
What makes his free agency odd: Because he is so young, MLB classifies Sasaki as an international amateur. That means he will have to sign a minor-league contract — technically, teams can’t even promise to put him on the major-league roster — and is subject to signing bonus restrictions usually reserved for Latin American teenagers.
Teams’ signing bonus pools — the total amount they can spend on all international amateurs — range from $5.15 million to $7.55 million. Thus, the financial piece will not significantly sway where Sasaki ends up. The new international signing period opens Jan. 15, so no deal will become official before then.
“My advice for Roki is to go in with an open mind,” Wolfe said. “All of your preconceived notions, everything you’ve seen on TV, all of it — try to put it out of your mind and really listen to what the teams are going to present to you and what they have to say. Talk to other players; hear what they have to say in their experiences. And then you put it all into the stew and form your own opinions.
“At the end of the day, you know it when you see it. And when you see it, just tell me and that’s the direction we’ll go.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
