Roki Sasaki, the 23-year-old Japanese pitching phenomenon whose fastball has been clocked at 102 mph, has returned to Japan. During his trip to Los Angeles made specifically to hear Major league teams deliver their best sales pitches to him, he heard from 20 of those teams and met in person with “a set few,” according to his agent Joel Wolfe of the Wasserman Group — an agency that also represents Japanese outfielder Seiya Suzuki of the Chicago Cubs.
In a Zoom call with American media, Wolfe said that Sasaki will now evaluate the information he received from each team with an eye to narrowing his list of potential destinations. The young righthander who struck out 524 batters in 414 2/3 innings over four seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Pacific League is likely to visit at least one MLB city prior to January 15, 2025.
That date is when MLB’s signing period for international free agents gets underway.
The Yankees’ Next Step in Pursuit of Sasaki — Nothing
The New York Yankees were one of the first teams to meet with Sasaki. While details of the meeting have been kept under wraps, it likely did not involve any current Yankees players because according to a report by USA Today baseball columnist Bob Nightengale, Sasaki specifically requested “that no team include any of their own players in the recruiting visits.”
What should the Yankees do next? According to one leading Yankees blog, Bleeding Yankee Blue, the answer is nothing. At least not yet.
“Patience is the name of the game,” wrote Bleeding Yankee Blue in an unsigned post. “Wolfe hinted that a decision might not come until January 23. That’s right—there’s still time for fans to speculate, dream, and maybe even stress a little. So, buckle up. The Roki Sasaki saga is just heating up, and whether he ends up in pinstripes, blue and orange [the New York Mets], or somewhere else entirely, one thing’s for sure: this young pitcher is a game-changer in the making.”
The Yankees may have an uphill battle in persuading Sasaki to make his baseball home in the Bronx. The Los Angeles Dodgers also reportedly met with Sasaki and are considered the favorites to sign him, in part due to the west coast’s closer proximity to Japan. The shortest flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles is nine hours and 40 minutes. Most flights from Tokyo to New York take around 13 hours.
Sasaki Achieves Pitching Perfection
How good is Sasaki? At age 20 he pitched only the 16th perfect game in the history of Japan’s top professional baseball leagues (known as Nippon Pro Baseball, or NPB) and first since 1994.
The perfect game came on April 10, 2022. Sasaki struck out 19 Orix Buffaloes hitters on the way to retiring all 27 he faced, at one stretch setting down an NPB record 13 straight by way of the K.
But Sasaki was not yet finished. That game was part of a 17-inning streak of perfection in April, 2022. In his very next outing, facing the Nippon Ham Fighters, the young mound prodigy recorded eight more perfect innings before his manager Tadahito Iguchi, a former second baseman for the Chicago White Sox, pulled him due to his pitch count of 102.
While the decision certainly frustrated fans, Iguchi was being mindful of the fact that Sasaki had already experienced arm injuries while in high school.
The MLB record for consecutive perfect innings by a starting pitcher is 14 held by Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox who pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays on July 23, 2009, then followed it up with another five perfect innings in his next start.
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Yankees Still in Race for Roki Sasaki, Patience Urged for ‘Game Changer’ Pitcher