The Dodgers have landed one other star out of Japan. Roki Sasaki introduced on Friday night that he’s signing with Los Angeles. The Wasserman shopper will reportedly obtain a $6.5MM signing bonus. The Dodgers haven’t formally introduced the deal, which might be finalized at any level till the night of January 23.
As a world newbie, Sasaki is proscribed to a minor league contract with a hard-capped signing bonus. He gained’t instantly occupy a 40-man roster spot, although the workforce will definitely choose him onto the MLB roster by Opening Day. In the long run, it’s a reasonably unsurprising consequence, although different outcomes appeared considerably potential at occasions. The Dodgers have lengthy been seen as probably the most logical touchdown spot for Sasaki, and although the Padres and Blue Jays tried to make shocking runs, the probably end result has now come to cross.
Sasaki’s free company has been hotly anticipated for a while. He made his debut in Japan’s Nippon Skilled Baseball in 2021 on the younger age of 19 and went on to publish excellent outcomes over the previous few years. Because of triple-digit velocity on his fastball and a lethal splitter, he has managed to publish a 2.10 earned run common in 394 2/3 innings over the previous 4 years. He struck out 32.7% of batters confronted and restricted walks to a 5.7% clip.
That efficiency would have made him one of many prime free brokers of this or any offseason, which usually would have lined him up for a large payday. Nevertheless, Sasaki appeared decided to begin his main league profession as quickly as potential, with out a lot regard for cash.
If he had waited till he turned 25, he would have been thought-about knowledgeable underneath MLB guidelines, and thus capable of signal for any quantity the market would bear. That was the route taken by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who secured a $325MM assure from the Dodgers final offseason.
However Sasaki is making the transfer now, having simply turned 23 years outdated, that means he’s thought-about an newbie and thus topic to MLB’s worldwide bonus pool system. Below that system, every workforce will get a set quantity to spend on worldwide amateurs yearly. This 12 months, every workforce will get between $5-8MM, a paltry quantity in comparison with what Yamamoto secured. That at the very least made it theoretically potential that any membership might signal him, because the big-spending golf equipment couldn’t outmuscle the smaller golf equipment like with many different free brokers.
Nevertheless, regardless of that theoretical even taking part in discipline, there have been nonetheless many good causes to anticipate the Dodgers to emerge victorious. Sasaki and his agent Joel Wolfe didn’t reveal a lot concerning the participant’s preferences, however logically, the Dodgers are a sexy touchdown spot. They play on the West Coast, which is usually interesting for gamers coming over from Asia merely as a result of relative proximity. They’ve a powerful observe report of on-field success, having made the playoffs in annually going again to 2013 now and having simply gained the World Sequence a number of months in the past. Additionally they roster a few different Japanese stars in Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani.
It wasn’t recognized how a lot Sasaki would weigh these elements in comparison with others. Wolfe pushed again on the notion that Sasaki cared concerning the presence of different Japanese gamers. He additionally urged final month that Sasaki would possibly want a smaller market, on account of some friction with the media throughout his time in Japan.
There have been some arguments to presumably think about eventualities the place he would like to go elsewhere. The Padres might have provided a smaller market than the Dodgers and it was reported that Sasaki has a powerful relationship with present Padre Yu Darvish. The Blue Jays are owned by Rogers Communications, the membership’s major broadcaster, doubtlessly giving them the power to decrease Sasaki’s entry to the media. The truth that they’re the one MLB workforce in Canada additionally theoretically opened up extra endorsement alternatives from Japanese corporations, versus sharing the L.A. market with Ohtani and Yamamoto. The Jays additionally had a bigger worldwide bonus pool than the Dodgers and added to it by buying extra pool area from the Guardians in a commerce earlier at present.
However regardless of any short-term drama that performed out this offseason, the obvious factor has occurred. Sasaki has joined a workforce that’s already loaded with stars like Ohtani, Yamamoto, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. 2005 was the final time the Dodgers gained fewer than 80 video games and now they’re including one other vastly gifted participant into the combination.
Including Sasaki’s expertise is a large enhance to the roster however it’s additionally large from a monetary perspective. As an newbie, Sasaki will solely be capable to make the league minimal this 12 months and till he qualifies for arbitration or indicators an extension. That’s a large factor for a membership just like the Dodgers, who already owe massive sums of cash to their aforementioned stars in addition to Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Teoscar Hernández and loads of others.
It additionally provides them a humiliation of riches within the rotation, at the very least when it comes to pure expertise. Their rotation combine now contains Sasaki, Ohtani, Yamamoto, Glasnow, Snell, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin Could. It’s a close to inevitability that Clayton Kershaw will finally re-sign. Even with every of Gavin Stone, Emmet Sheehan, Kyle Damage and River Ryan set to overlook most or all of subsequent season, the Dodgers’ rotation ought to run eight or 9 names deep. Landon Knack, Justin Wrobleski, Nick Frasso and previously touted rookie Bobby Miller are all available as depth starters.
It’s a staggering quantity of expertise for one workforce. The Dodgers gained the World Sequence final 12 months regardless of their playoff rotation. This 12 months, the rotation must be a energy going into October. That’s regardless of the damage danger related to primarily everybody within the group. Glasnow has by no means surpassed 134 MLB innings in a season. Yamamoto was restricted to 18 begins in his first MLB season by a rotator cuff pressure. Snell has solely topped 130 frames twice. Kershaw, Gonsolin and Could all missed most or all of final season recovering from main surgical procedures. Ohtani underwent elbow surgical procedure late in 2023 and didn’t pitch final 12 months.
Sasaki comes with loads of sturdiness questions in his personal proper. He averaged fewer than 100 innings per season over his 4 years in NPB. He by no means reached 130 innings and was restricted to 111 frames throughout 18 appearances a 12 months in the past. Sasaki had a pair of accidents in 2024: an indirect tear and shoulder fatigue.
The Dodgers will fortunately take the tradeoff of some IL stints for price dominance. Los Angeles doesn’t place a lot worth on bulk innings. They’re content material to embrace damage danger as they chase pitchers with top-of-the-rotation upside. That’s enabled partly by their assets, after all, although cash isn’t an element for Sasaki.
Each workforce would have been thrilled to signal Sasaki for $6.5MM. The Dodgers can even owe a $1.3MM posting payment to the pitcher’s NPB workforce, the Chiba Lotte Marines. The posting payment is proportional to the scale of the participant’s signing bonus. As Sasaki’s bonus was capped at a number of million {dollars}, the Marines have been restricted to twenty% of no matter he obtained.
It comes out to a $7.8MM funding to land Japan’s most gifted pitcher. The Dodgers have signed arguably NPB’s finest pitcher in consecutive offseasons. They’ll have Sasaki for the usual six-year window of workforce management related to the promotion of any prospect. He’ll be slated for salaries across the league minimal for the following three seasons. He’d then undergo three years of the arbitration course of. MLB guidelines prohibit the Dodgers and Sasaki from reaching any type of understanding relating to a contract extension to avoid the bonus pool limits. Whereas there’s no official cutoff for when the Dodgers might look to increase Sasaki, they can not have any type of unofficial long-term deal within the works proper now.
The Dodgers opened this signing interval tied with the Giants for the bottom bonus pool. They’d $5.1462MM to spend on worldwide amateurs on January 15. The Dodgers allowed a number of of their verbal agreements with teenage prospects to lapse to maintain open funds for Sasaki. They added to their pool by dealing minor league outfielder Dylan Campbell to the Phillies and sending outfield prospect Arnaldo Lantigua to Cincinnati tonight. Their exact bonus allotment isn’t recognized, however Sasaki will take the overwhelming majority of the pool. That’s a commerce each workforce would fortunately make for a possible plug-and-play ace.
It’s a brutal blow for followers of the opposite two finalists. The Padres came upon this morning that they have been out of the combination. They’ve a number of holes of their rotation and now face a good harder problem within the NL West. The Blue Jays end because the runner-up on one more marquee free agent expertise. Toronto has misplaced out on Ohtani, Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes and Sasaki (amongst others) throughout the previous two offseasons alone.
Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Occasions first reported the signing bonus. Picture courtesy of USA At present Sports activities.
