Getty Yankees Japanese target Roki Sasaki could come to MLB next season.
At this point, Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki is not exactly a well-kept secret. Teams had already been well aware of the now 22-year-old phenom before last year’s World Baseball Classic, but when he went out and started a game against Mexico with 19 straight fastballs that were clocked at over 100 mph, he became a worldwide sensation. And the Yankees would like to get him into pinstripes.
That could happen earlier than the normal waiting period for a Japanese player—typically, they are not posted for bidding by MLB teams until they are 25. But MLB.com reported that, “Reports out of Japan suggest he has a provision in his contract that would force Chiba Lotte to post him at his request,” though that has not been confirmed by the team.
The Yankees, though, have their eyes on the 6-foot-4 Sasaki. According to a Japanese report that SNY’s Andy Martino had translated, both New York teams have been on hand in Japan to scout Sasaki.
“This article says that the Mets and Yankees were among 8 teams to scout NPB ace Roki Sasaki, according to someone who translated it for me,” Martino wrote on Twitter/X on Sunday.
Yankees Seeking a Return to the Japanese Market
Landing Sasaki would be a major score for the Yankees, on multiple levels. For one thing, if Sasaki is posted, he would have to do so an amateur and would have to enter MLB on a minor-league contract, with a cap on his bonus. That means he would be a cheap entry into the league for three years, at which point he would be eligible for a significant raise.
That was the path Shohei Ohtani took into American baseball in 2017, when he was 23. He got a signing bonus of $2.3 million with the Angels, and earned a total of $1.6 million in salary for his first three seasons combined. Sasaki would be a similar bargain.
Sasaki was 7-4 with a 1.78 ERA in 2023, and a strikeout rate of 13.4 per 9 innings.
102.
Roki Sasaki is not messing around tonight 😳🔥
The Yankees would also very much like to get themselves back into the Japanese market, where the franchise has had some successes—outfielder Hideki Matsui and pitcher Masahiro Tanaka—but also some spectacular failures, like pitchers Hideki Irabu and Kei Igawa.
But it has been 10 years since the Yankees signed Tanaka, their last major acquisition from Japan, and their attempts to land Yoshinobu Yamamoto last winter were thwarted by the Dodgers, despite the Yankees giving Yamamoto a deal that offered a higher annual value and a faster path to his opt-out year.
Roki Sasaki Has ‘2 Unicorn-Type Pitches’
All that is well and good, but the real attraction for Sasaki is his talent. He is equipped with one-of-a-kind stuff, and is able to dominate with just two pitches, a fastball that consistently tops 100 mph and is packed with movement, plus a bottom-out split-finger pitch that is near impossible to hit.
Sports Info Solutions summed up Sasaki’s fastball: “Sasaki’s fastball is one of two unicorn-type pitches for him. The average velocity is hard to match, as his four-seamer would have put him second among qualified starters in MLB last season behind only Bobby Miller who averaged 99.1 mph on his four-seamer last season. Sasaki’s fastball has also touched 102.5 mph.”
And even though he is still toiling in Japan, SIS writes that there are few pitchers in the world, including in MLB, worth watching more.
“There are no flaws in his game other than staying healthy and on the bump,” the site’s Brandon Tew reported. “When he’s pitching there’s nobody better than him in NPB and the 22-year-old phenom will likely be the most exciting pitcher to watch come this spring.
“As for his future in Japan and possible move to MLB, that will have to wait for now, but he’s sensational to watch every time he pitches.”