Yankees, Mets can both use the services of Japanese star Roki Sasaki

The Mets, a win-now team if there ever was one after signing Juan Soto to a record contract earlier this month, could use a pitcher with the potential of Japanese star Roki Sasaki, given the significant questions surrounding their 2025 rotation.

The Yankees, who have a top-heavy rotation with fewer questions, nonetheless have a just-as-strong desire to land Sasaki, 23.

Still, the overwhelming sense in the sport all season was that Sasaki ultimately would end up with the Dodgers and that the Padres would be a close second.

The recruitment of the righthander, which began when he was officially posted on Dec. 10, hasn’t changed that thinking.

Meanwhile, Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, did not come close to tipping his hand in a news conference Monday night that contained little news.

“At Roki’s request,” Wolfe said, “[we] tried to keep the flow of information at a minimum.”

Wolfe, who expects Sasaki to make his decision between Jan. 15 and the Jan. 23 deadline, said 20 teams expressed an interest in the pitcher after he was posted. In the weeks since, Sasaki narrowed that field to teams he wanted to meet with in-person, with the Yankees and Mets among them.

Wolfe didn’t specify which teams his client met with in-person. The Dodgers, Padres, Rangers, Giants and Cubs are among the other teams reported to have had face-to-face time with Sasaki, who has returned to Japan.

All of the in-person meetings, based on Sasaki’s request to have the process take place on “a fair and level playing field,” Wolfe said, were held to a two-hour time limit. They all occurred at the agent’s offices in Los Angeles.

“The next steps will be something in the neighborhood of possibly meeting with one or two additional teams or narrowing the field, which I think may be more likely,” Wolfe said. “And whether or not he wants to visit one or two cities as he finalizes the decision-making process.”

Unlike the vast majority of free agents, dollars will not be a major factor in that decision. Because Sasaki is younger than 25, he can sign only a minor-league contract under the 2025 international signing bonus pools. Team figures generally are in the range from $5.15 million to $7.55 million.

“He has a more long-term, global view of things,” Wolfe said of Sasaki’s priorities. “I believe Roki is very interested in pitching development and how a team is going to help him get better, both in the near future and over the course of his career.

“He didn’t seem overly concerned about whether a team had Japanese players on their team or not . . . That was never a topic of discussion.”

Speaking earlier in the call, Wolfe said of Sasaki’s reasoning for wanting to come to the majors at such a young age: “He is a guy that wants to be great. He’s not coming here just to be rich or [get] a huge contract. He wants to be great, one of the best ever.”

The Mets, who already have one Japanese pitcher on their roster in Kodai Senga, also have the considerable wallet wielded by owner Steve Cohen.

“We’re certainly going to give it our best shot,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns, who went to Japan last September to watch Sasaki, said during the winter meetings. “Very difficult in these processes to truly understand what a player’s preference is . . . We’ll do our best. It’s certainly an attractive opportunity.”

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman did not visit Japan this season but saw Sasaki  in person during a trip there in 2023 as part of the club’s preparation to woo Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

The defending World Series champion Dodgers have the sport’s biggest star, Shohei Ohtani, and  Yamamoto on their roster. The Padres like their chances for multiple reasons, chief among those the presence of Yu Darvish, whom Sasaki greatly admires.

Goldschmidt a Yankee. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt and the Yankees finalized their one-year, $12.5 million contract on Monday. Goldschmidt‘s deal had been agreed to on Dec. 21, subject to a successful physical.