All eyes in the baseball world are currently focused on Roki Sasaki. The 23-year-old Japanese flamethrower phenomenon is apparently days away from signing with an MLB club. Reports indicate Sasaki has narrowed his options to the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays. Whichever franchise lures the ultra-talented youngster will get the bargain of the winter: a controllable, electrifying starting pitcher with immense potential.
But while Sasaki’s decision will have far-reaching implications for the 2025 season and beyond, the arrival of another Japanese talent could have an even bigger impact on the future of Japan-American relations in baseball.
Shotaro Morii is an 18-year-old two-way player who is widely considered one of the best players in his Japanese high school class. But rather than embark on a professional career in Japan, as thousands of his compatriots have done, Morii chose to blaze a new trail by signing with Athletics as an international amateur for a signing bonus of $1.5 million. The deal, first reported by Yahoo Japan, became official on Wednesday. hopefuls on day one of this year’s signing class were able to announce contracts.
It is the first of its kind.
Never before in Japanese baseball history has an elite amateur prospect signed directly with an MLB team from a Japanese high school. Last year, a first baseman named Rintaro Sasaki (no relation to Roki), then the nation’s consensus top prospect, made the revolutionary choice to bypass the NPB draft in favor of enrolling as a freshman at Stanford University. He played ball last summer against collegiate competition and will play his first season with the Cardinal this spring. Sasaki’s decision sent shockwaves through the Japanese baseball community, and Morii’s deal with the Athletics only adds fuel to the fire.
As a two-way player, Morii – a left-hitting, right-throwing shortstop and right-handed pitcher – is enticing and promising, but not generational. Offensively, he has impressive pop for his age, thanks to electric hands and a wide frame. However, as he adds more strength and bulk, he may eventually have to slide from shortstop to a less valuable spot on the field. On the mound, he touches 95 mph but is not yet a polished product. Overall, Morii offers an exciting and projectable package, one that would likely make him a first-round pick if he were a high school player in the United States.
But what Morii represents and what his decision could precipitate in the years to come could prove more significant than anything he accomplishes during his career on the ball field.
Japan has a rich and complex baseball history, but until 1995, only one player born and raised in Japan had reached Major League Baseball. This pioneer was Masanori Murakami. As a 20-year-old reliever, Murakami traveled to America in 1964 alongside two of his Nankai Hawks teammates to participate in a baseball exchange program with the San Francisco Giants. He reported to the Giants’ single-A team, but proved far too competent for that level. By the end of the summer, the Giants had called him up to the majors, making him the first Japanese player in MLB history.
And while Murakami shined in San Francisco’s bullpen, his success created a firestorm at home. The Hawks wanted their player back. The Giants, after unearthing a gem, wanted to keep Murakami. After much back and forth, the leagues finally reached an agreement: Murakami would spend 1965 with the Giants, then return to NPB.
The whole incident led to a sort of friendly agreement between the two leagues that MLB teams would not poach Japanese players. And for three decades, it was the status quo. Not a single Japanese player appeared in MLB between 1965 and 1994. Then, in the winter of 1995, everything changed.
Hideo Nomo, a star pitcher for the Kintetsu Buffaloes, used a loophole in his contract to retire from NPB, making him eligible to sign with an MLB team. Upon becoming a Los Angeles Dodger, Nomo became a celebrity, immediately winning the NL Rookie of the Year award. His dramatic departure – and two others that followed, featuring NPB players Hideki Irabu and Alfonso Soriano – motivated both leagues to implement the posting system.
This system has changed in form and function since its ratification in 1998, but its intentions remain the same. It aims to give Japanese superstars the opportunity to test their talents in MLB while providing NPB teams with financial compensation following their departure. However, NPB teams must agree to post their players, a dynamic that often leads to conflict and controversy. Roki Sasaki, for example, received a torrent of criticism in Japan for asking to be posted before reaching what some say is the level required to succeed at NPB.
So even though Japanese MLB players are generally liked and appreciated in Japan and the national team won the last World Baseball Classic, the trend of talented young players making the jump to MLB earlier and earlier is a source of concern for many. Morii and Rintaro Sasaki, by completely bypassing the Japanese domestic system, only intensified these concerns. If the pioneering duo reaches MLB, they will become only the fourth and fifth Japanese-born and raised players in baseball history to appear in an MLB game without first appearing in an NPB game.
The previous three stories are complete aberrations. The first, Mac Suzuki, was kicked out of his home by his parents when he was a teenager and went to work for an independent league team in America. He eventually pitched for that team before moving up the ranks of affiliated baseball, working his way up to the minor leagues and joining the bigs. The second, Kazuhito Tadano, was a highly regarded college pitcher who went undrafted by the NPB after a pornographic video of him became public. He instead signed with Cleveland and reached the majors in 2004. He is now the pitching coach for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, Ohtani’s former team. The third, pitcher Junichi Tazawa, was a late bloomer who, after going undrafted in NPB, signed with an industrial league team and became a bona fide prospect. Rather than re-entering the NPB draft, he signed with the Boston Red Sox in 2008.
What Shotaro Morii and Rintaro Sasaki are trying is completely different. Rather, it is structurally similar to the way Latin American amateurs sign with MLB teams. This dynamic, while problematic in other ways, makes sense given that countries like Venezuela and the Dominican Republic do not have meaningful professional summer leagues.
This is not the case in Japan, where baseball remains the country’s biggest sport and NPB its biggest league. Fans, proud of the strength of national baseball, fear becoming little more than a feeder league for the richest and most powerful forces in American baseball.
Both sides of the story make sense. On the one hand, players should have the freedom to play wherever they want. They should be able to pursue their dreams at the highest level possible. And considering the value of MLB’s contracts compared to NPB’s, it’s a reasonable business decision. At the same time, it’s understandable that Japanese fans are concerned that their country’s best young players are starting to bypass the local pipeline entirely.
If and how Japan’s powers-that-be attempt to impede the trans-Pacific flow of talent over the next decade will be a fascinating dynamic to watch. Not long ago, Morii would have entered his name into the NPB draft, becoming a Chunichi Dragon or Yomiuri Giant. Instead, he’s athletic.
And if he becomes a productive big league player, there’s a good chance he won’t be the last player to hit the 5,000-mile mark at such a young age.
