Making a trade for money that can only be spent on paper is rarely a headline-grabbing transaction in Major League Baseball.
This week is an exception.
When Japanese star Roki Sasaki narrowed his list of possible teams to the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays on Monday, the race to sign the 23-year-old right-hander gained clarity.
Wednesday was the first day of the 2025 international amateur signing period - and the first day teams could make a trade to add up to $250,000 to their spending pool on international amateurs.
While none of the finalists for Sasaki have consummated such a trade yet, the Dodgers are trying, according to Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times.
"Dodgers officials have had discussions with several other teams about potentially acquiring more international bonus pool money via trade, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly - though it is believed those talks to this point have been more exploratory in nature," Harris reports.
Sasaki's signing bonus can only be paid out of a team's international amateur bonus pool. Because he is 23, Sasaki is ineligible for major league free agency under the terms of MLB's posting system arrangement with NPB. His first contract will technically be a minor league deal, but he is expected to break camp on his team's major league roster.
Sasaki is the top international amateur in the 2025 signing period, and the rare prospect with the potential to step into a major league rotation on Day 1.
When he was 20, Sasaki threw a 19-strikeout perfect game for the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2022. In his next start, he threw eight more perfect innings in a row. In the 2023 World Baseball Classic, his fastball sat at 100 mph.
Last season, Sasaki went 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA in 18 starts for Chiba Lotte, with 129 strikeouts in 111 innings. The Marines formally posted him in December.
As Harris notes, "bonus pool money can be traded in increments of $250,000, and teams can acquire up to an additional 60% of what was in their original allotment (meaning the Dodgers could potentially add just over another $3 million to their bonus pool). It's likely the Padres and Blue Jays will also explore similar potential deals."
