Jeff Passan says that Roki Sasaki is expected to be officially posted during the Winter Meetings
MLB Rumors: Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki is expected to be officially posted during this coming week’s Winter Meetings, according to Jeff Passan. The timing of the posting would allow him to be potentially signed as part of the 2025 international signing period, which opens on January 15.
Sasaki, a 23 year old righthander, is considered to be among the best pitchers in the world. Because he is under 25, the amount of the bonus a major league team can offer him is limited to what they have available in their international free agent bonus pool for the period during which he signs.
Pretty much every team in MLB is presumably going to be interested in landing Sasaki, though only a handful of teams are generally viewed as serious contenders, with the Los Angeles Dodgers seen as the favorites. Passan has the Texas Rangers as one of the teams “expected to be significant players” in the battle to sign Sasaki. Ben Badler of Baseball America has the Rangers as the third most likely team to sign Sasaki, behind the Padres and the Dodgers.
Given no team can simply moneywhip Sasaki under the international free agent signing rules, the decision will presumably come down to the team that is the best fit. Should the Rangers manage to pull off an upset and snag Sasaki, it would be a franchise-altering coup, as he would immediately join the team’s rotation as their #2 starter, with the rotation then looking something like:
Jacob deGrom
Roki Sasaki
Tyler Mahle
Jon Gray
Cody Bradford
With Dane Dunning, Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter as your depth, before getting into any other potential scenarios, such as re-signing Nathan Eovaldi.