Neither Shohei Ohtani neither Yoshinobu Yamamoto were part of Dodgers‘Initial in-person presentation to Japanese star pitcher Roki Sasakia meeting that took place at Wasserman Media Group’s Westwood offices before the holiday, according to people with knowledge of the situation and not authorized to speak publicly about it.
The reason for their absence? They weren’t invited.
“One of the criteria for the meetings is that Roki has requested that no players attend,” Joel Wolfe, the agent representing the 23-year-old right-hander, said during a 20-minute video call with the journalists to provide an update on the negotiations with Sasaki. Monday.
“There were a few teams that had video of one or two players, but for the most part it was the general manager, possibly an assistant general manager, the manager, the pitching coach and people of the biomechanics of performance and personal training department.
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Wolfe would not say how many teams have met with Sasaki in recent weeks, but five other clubs – the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants – are publicly known to have met him, and the San Franciscos. Diego Padres is considered the main suitor for his services.
Meetings were limited to two hours and were held in Wolfe’s office. There were no visits to the stadium or trips to other cities.
“I think he did that to preserve the integrity of the meeting process,” Wolfe said. “And I think the teams he met with would tell you he was engaged, he was asking questions.”
Wolfe said Sasaki returned to Japan to “meet with his family and his team to decide what the next steps are…possibly meeting one or two more teams or narrowing down the field, which I think might be more likely.”
Sasaki, Wolfe said, could also “visit a city or two to try to finalize his decision,” which will likely be made within a week of the 2025 international signing period opening on Jan. 15.
Although Monday’s call was light on detail, it did help shed some light on the recruiting process and provide some insight into the pitcher.
After Sasaki was assigned to the Chiba Lotte Marines on December 9, Wolfe sent a letter to all 30 teams asking to send “any type of information they wanted Roki to review.”
Twenty teams responded, most with lavish presentations.
“The level of preparation, the videos…it was like the Roki film festival,” Wolfe said. “There were in-depth PowerPoint presentations, short films and some teams produced actual books. People have clearly spent hundreds of hours researching Roki and his personal and professional journey, and I can’t say enough about how much he and his family enjoyed it.
Sasaski also gave each team he met with a “homework,” Wolfe said, “an opportunity for teams to really show what they specialize in.”
The Dodgers, who beat the New York Yankees in the five World Series games in October, have long been considered the favorites to bring in Sasaki, but if Sasaki ends up in Los Angeles, it won’t necessarily be because of the presence of Ohtani and Yamamoto, who were teammates by Sasaki on Japanese team to win the World Baseball Classic in 2023.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations about where the teams are, the size of the market, the success of the teams…but he doesn’t seem too concerned about whether or not a team has Japanese players,” Wolfe said. “In the past when I represented Japanese players, this was sometimes a problem, but it was never a topic of discussion.”
The wiry 6-foot-4, 203-pound Sasaki went 30-15 with a 2.02 ERA in 69 games over four seasons in Japan, striking out 524 and walking 91 in 414 ⅔ innings. He went 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA in 18 games in 2024, with 129 strikeouts and 32 walks in 111 innings.
The highlight of Sasaki’s career was a perfect game against the Orix Buffaloes on April 10, 2022, a game in which he tied a Nippon Professional Baseball record with 19 strikeouts and set an NPB record with 13 consecutive strikeouts.
Sasaki’s stuff is electric. He can generate plenty of swings and misses with a snappy fastball that sits in the 98 mph range and has touched 102 mph, and he complements his heater with a split-finger, sharp fastball that he throws between 88 and 93 mph. , a slider from 87 to 91 mph and an occasional slow curve from 78 to 81 mph.
But what makes Sasaki even more coveted is that he is a potential ace who can be acquired at minimal cost.
Because he is not yet 25, Sasaki will be limited to a minor league contract with a modest signing bonus, similar to when Ohtani, then 23, signed with the Angels for $2.315 million and earned $545,000 (2018), $650,000 (2019), and $700,000. (2020) during its first three seasons.
If he had waited two more years to leave Japan, Sasaki — like Yamamoto, who signed a 12-year, $325 million contract with the Dodgers last winter — reportedly positioned himself for a massive nine-figure deal.
“Roki is by no means a finished product – he knows that and the teams know that,” Wolfe said. “He is incredibly talented. We all know it. But he’s a guy who wants to be great. He doesn’t come here just to be rich or to get a big contract. He wants to be one of the greatest of all time. And to achieve this, he knows he must challenge himself.
“I think with his experience at the WBC, being around (San Diego pitcher Yu) Darvish and Ohtani, and then seeing (Cubs left-hander Shota) Imanaga come in and dominate at such a level in the first half, he realized that in order to get to the next level, he had to come here, play every day against the best players in the world and tap into all the resources major league teams have to help him become one of the best pitchers of all time, not just to come from NPB, but in all of Major League Baseball.
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Sasaki would strengthen an already strong Dodgers rotation, currently led by right-handers Tyler Glasnow and Yamamoto and left-handed Blake Snelltwo-time Cy Young Award winner, who signed a five-year, $182 million contract in late November.
Ohtani, the two-way star and 2024 National League most valuable player who was relegated to designated hitter while recovering from another elbow surgery last season, is expected to return to the mound early of 2025.
Right-handed Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin also expected to return from elbow surgery this season, and a three-time Cy Young Award winner. Clayton Kershaw should sign again. Young right-handers Landon Knack And Bobby Miller will provide depth.
“He’s someone that’s obviously a major priority for us,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said during the winter meetings in early December. “We’re going to do everything we can and we know there are a lot of other teams that will do the exact same thing.”
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This story was originally published in Los Angeles Times.
