Major League Baseball’s international signing period opens on Wednesday, and there are dozens of promising prospects from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and countries around the world ready and eager to sign contracts to start what they each hope will be successful and exciting professional baseball careers.
But no international prospect is drawing more attention and excitement this year than a 23-year-old pitching prodigy from Rikuzentakata, Japan, named Roki Sasaki.
Major League talent evaluators have had their sites set on Sasaki since he was a teenager pitching at Ofunato High School. But he started to open eyes for real when at the age of 20, he threw a perfect game for his pro team the Chiba Lotte Marines against the Orix Buffaloes. Sasaki struck out 19 in that masterpiece, which has been called “the most impressive pitching performance ever.”
But that wasn’t all. In Sasaki’s next outing he threw another eight perfect innings, striking out 14, before he was removed from the game to protect his arm.
Sasaki Has Until January 23 to Make up His Mind
Sasaki was posted — that is, made available to MLB teams — on December 10, which under rules adopted by MLB and Japan’s pro baseball leagues means that he has 45 days to choose and work out a contract with a Major League team. That makes his deadline January 23, giving Sasaki eight days to make up his mind after the international signing period opens.
As might be expected, the favorites to sign Sasaki have been some of baseball’s highest-profile clubs including the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, the New York Yankees, or the San Diego Padres. But this week in a surprising new prediction shared by several baseball prognosticators, an unexpected candidate to land Sasaki’s services has emerged: the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The notion that a small-market team like the Pirates could be a real player in the Sasaki sweepstakes was fueled by comments made by the pitcher’s stateside agent, Joel Wolfe, in December. Wolfe said that “there’s an argument to be made that a small- or mid-market team might be more beneficial for him, as a soft landing, coming from Japan and what he’s been through and not having an enjoyable experience with the media.”
“Enter the Pittsburgh Pirates. Yep, you read that right,” wrote the Yankees blog Bleeding Yankee Blue on Sunday. “The Pirates have quietly built a solid reputation for developing pitchers. Look at Paul Skenes and Jared Jones and the addition of Sasaki could be a game-changer for their franchise. That has been reports that the Pirates are the dark horse in all of this.”
Pirates Handling of Young Pitchers a Draw for Sasaki
With Skenes, the Pirates already have experience handling a generational pitching prodigy. The No. 1 overall draft pick in 2023, Skenes won National League Rookie of the Year and was named NL All-Star Game starter in 2024. He also placed third in Cy Young Award voting.
The Pirates have also done a noteworthy job developing Jared Jones, a 23-year-old who was taken in the second round of the 2020 draft out of La Mirada High School in California.
Under general manager Ben Cherington, Pittsburgh has placed a heavy emphasis on developing young pitchers. In addition to Skenes and Jones, five of the organization’s top 10 MLB.com-rated prospects are pitchers, led by their No. 1 prospect, 22-year-old Bubba Chandler, a 2021 third round pick who the Pirates nabbed out of high school with a first-round level $3 million signing bonus.
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Roki Sasaki to Pirates Joining Paul Skenes, Jared Jones in Surprise Prediction