Chiba Lotte, Roki Sasaki‘s Japanese team, posted the pitching phenom this week, meaning the 23-year-old will soon begin meeting with Major League Baseball teams. While the usual MLB heavy hitters like the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers will surely make their pitches, Sasaki's agent gave some real hope to small and mid-market teams.
Agent Joel Wolfe met with the media in Dallas at the MLB Winter Meetings on Tuesday where he shed some light on what Sasaki might look for in a destination.
“I think that there’s an argument to be made that a smaller mid-market team may be more beneficial for him as a soft landing, coming from Japan, given what he’s been through,” Wolfe said. “Given what he’s been through and not having an enjoyable experience with the media, it might be… I’m not saying it will be, it might be beneficial for him to be in a smaller market. But I really don’t know how he looks at it yet because I haven’t had a chance to really sit down and discuss it with him in great detail.”
Wolfe expanded on that, saying the Japanese media has been tough on him in recent years, but that will not stop him from fulfilling his Big League dreams — even if it's not with the Dodgers or Yankees.
“Roki’s had a tough go of it the last couple of years,” he said. “The media in Japan has been very tough on him. He’s not had a great time with it. And I think it’s my personal opinion I think it’s been a bit unfair. And it’s affected him mentally a little bit. But he’s a great kid and he comes from a great family … his dream is to come here to the major leagues and I think that he hasn’t really wrapped his head around the individual teams and the individual cities and he just really doesn’t know much about them.”
Why Roki Sasaki is making his MLB move now
At 23, Sasaki is not eligible to sign a mega-deal like Yoshinobu Yamamoto did last winter with the Dodgers. Instead, he can only sign a minor league deal as an international amateur. Any major payday is going to have to wait.
So why now? Sasaki has dominated the Japan Pacific League, pitching to a 2.35 ERA in 2024 and a 1.78 ERA in 2023.
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According to Wolfe, it's not the money that's moving the needle for him right now.
“There are no absolutes in baseball, there are no absolutes in life and through Roki Sasaki's eyes — and if you look at some of the things that have happened in his life — some of the tragedies that have happened in his life, he does not take anything for granted,” he said.
Wolfe is likely referring to Sasaki losing his father in the earthquake and tsunami that tore through Japan in 2011.
The international signing window opens on January 15 and Wolfe is hopeful that Sasaki will make his decision around that time.
