The Chiba Lotte Marines announced Saturday that they will begin the process of recruiting Ruki Sasaki, the Japanese right-hander considered one of the most talented pitchers in the world, paving the way for the 23-year-old to join Major League Baseball in 2025.
The posting system is the transfer method between MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball making it available to all 30 teams.
Dubbed the “Beast of the Reiwa Era,” Sasaki regularly throws a fastball that reaches triple digits and complements it with a front-line split-fingered fastball and a slider.
Due to his age, Sasaki is an international amateur free agent and can only sign a minor league contract, which greatly limits the amount teams can pay him — and the amount Lotte earns through the associated 20% publishing fee. Players who are at least 25 years old and have played six years in a foreign league can sign major league contracts when they are published. Had he waited, Sasaki could have sought a deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars, similar to Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in late December for 12 years for $325 million. Instead, Sasaki, who requested to be hired last year but was denied by the team, will take a similar path as Shohei Ohtani, the star who arrived in the MLB at 23 years old and signed with the Los Angeles Angels for $2.3 million.
The timing of Sasaki’s deployment – which has yet to be determined – will determine whether he falls into the international amateur bracket for 2024 or 2025, sources said. When a player is deployed, he has a 45-day window to sign with a major league team. Although Sasaki will join the organization on a minor league deal, the team could add him to the major league roster before the 2025 season.
International amateur bonus pools are capped, with the top teams this year able to spend just over $7.1 million, while the biggest, biggest-spending market teams are able to spend $4.6 million and the rest in between. Teams can add up to 60% of their allocated pool by trading for other teams’ pooled bonus funds. Most teams have spent the majority of their 2024 bonus pools already, with the signing period for international free agents running from January 15 to December 15 annually.
If the official rollout is delayed until mid-December – it usually takes weeks to complete the process – Sasaki could sign when the 2025 international period begins on January 15. Although most teams have specific commitments to players in that period — the highest bonus pools are around $7.5 million, while the lowest is around $5.1 million — they could trade for additional international cap space or free up money by not honoring non-binding commitments that They cut it off on teenagers from Latin American countries, rare but not unheard of.
Rocky Sasaki, a 23-year-old right-hander who plays for Japan’s Chiba Lotte Marines, is considered one of the most talented pitchers in the world. AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko
For a player of Sasaki’s talent, teams will likely do everything they can to convince him to sign.
Sasaki emerged as a national star in Japan five years ago during the Koshien National High School Baseball Tournament, one of the country’s biggest annual sporting events. Over the course of eight days, he threw more than 500 pitches, including 12 innings, 21 strikeouts, and 194 complete pitches.
In 2022, when he was 20, Sasaki threw 19 perfect strikeouts for Luti and followed it up in his next start a week later with eight more perfect innings before being pulled. Sasaki’s tremendous fastball speed demonstrated during the 2023 World Baseball Classic — he averaged 100.5 mph at the start of Japan’s semifinal against Mexico — introduced him to an international audience, and although his request to join the MLB after the 2023 season has never been met. Lottie, but the inevitability of his departure only grew.
Sasaki did not sign his 2024 contract until January, before Luti began spring training. Players rarely delay signing their deals until then, and the episode ended with a prelude to what was to come after a 10-5 season in which Sasaki posted a 2.35 ERA, struck out 129, walked 32 and gave up two home runs in 111 innings.
Multiple sources familiar with previous posts said that players are often deployed when Japanese teams deem them to have “earned” the privilege. Although Sasaki has shown flashes of brilliance over his 394⅔ innings — going 29-15 with a 2.10 ERA and 505 strikeouts against 88 walks in 64 starts over four seasons — he won’t make it to the MLB with the same kind of resume as His ancestors. .
The astonishing success of Japanese players in the MLB has been one of the game’s biggest stories of the last decade, with three-time MVP award winners Ohani, Yamamoto, left-hander Shota Imanaga (Chicago Cubs), and Yusei Kikuchi (free agent). ), and outfielders Seiya Suzuki (Cubs) and Masataka Yoshida (Boston Red Sox) all go through the posting system. Right-hander Kodai Senga has joined the New York Mets without a posting fee after 11 seasons with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
MLB teams have braced for the possibility that Luti will retain Sasaki for at least two more years, allowing him to reach 25 and for the organization to experience the full financial benefit of that deployment. NPB teams control players’ rights for nine seasons before they reach free agency and can work outside the posting system. Had Luti waited until after the 2026 season, it could have pocketed tens of millions of dollars in posting fees paid by the acquiring team. The Dodgers paid Orix Blue Wave more than $50 million after signing Yamamoto.
Los Angeles will be strongly linked to Sasaki, but assuming he moves to the Dodgers is premature. While the presence of Sasaki’s Japanese Samurai teammates Ohtani and Yamamoto in Los Angeles is helpful, the attention they bring — and the media crowd that follows them — adds an element different from other teams.
Throughout the 2024 season, MLB presidents of baseball operations and general managers have been key to Sasaki’s start. Sasaki is close to right-hander Yu Darvish, who considers his team, the San Diego Padres, a potential landing spot. Both New York teams have strong interest in Sasaki, though he could also choose an organization with pedigree and experience (the Chicago Cubs), and a team in an international city (the Toronto Blue Jays), a team whose past success with Japanese players still resonates. (Darvish began his career with the Texas Rangers) or those whose reputation for bringing out the best in players might appeal to them (Tampa Bay Rays). Plenty of other franchises can – and will – make strong appeals to Sasaki once he’s published.
Unlike traditional free agency, Sasaki comes with a cap hit, making him a bargain for all 30 teams. Sasaki’s talent is not in anyone’s doubt, even with his average fastball velocity this season dropping by two pitches, to just over 97 mph. Sasaki has shown plenty of ability to ramp it up to triple digits at will, and could soon develop into the hardest-hitting player in the MLB. His best pitch remains the splitter, whose movement profile makes him unique, even in MLB where the split has come back into fashion in recent seasons.
Durability is the biggest question for Sasaki. His career high in innings pitched is 129⅓, which is set in 2022. This year, he made 18 starts after a torn oblique and right arm soreness caused him to sit out about a quarter of his innings.
Sasaki’s hiring comes amid a free-agent period that is expected to move more quickly than recent years and adds a layer of suspense to an offseason as Sasaki joins free-agent outfielder Juan Soto and right-hander Corbin Burns as the most coveted players. Available – at a fraction of the price.
