Japanese star RHP Roki Sasaki will be coming to MLB for the 2025 season.
The 23-year-old flamethrower has been posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball, per multiple reports.
His signing window opens on Dec. 10 and closes on Jan. 23.
Both the Mets and Yankees have been linked to Sasaki. And while buzz has tied him to the Dodgers, recent reports have indicated that him signing with Los Angeles is not close to a sure thing.
In addition to the Mets, Yankees, and Dodgers, the Padres are viewed as one of the main threats in the Sasaki sweepstakes.
Since Sasaki is being posted during the 2024-25 offseason and before his 25th birthday, he will be considered an international amateur free agent and can sign only a minor league contract. MLB rules do not allow players under 25 and with fewer than six professional seasons to sign anything but a minor league deal. His deal would count toward his signing team’s international bonus pool allotment.
Sasaki had a 2.35 ERA, 129 strikeouts, and just 32 walks in 111 innings and 18 starts last season. He did miss some time during the year due to a torn oblique and right arm soreness. Over four seasons in NPB, Sasaki has a 2.10 ERA, 505 strikeouts, and 88 walks in 64 starts over 394.2 innings.
“Since I joined the team, the team has been listening to my thoughts about my future challenge in the MLB, and I am very grateful to the team for officially allowing me to post now,” Sasaki recently said in the team’s statement posted on X. “There were many things that did not go well during my five years with the Marines, but I was always supported by my teammates, staff, front office, and fans, and was able to come this far by concentrating only on baseball. I will do my best to work my way up from my minor contract to become the best player in the world, so that I will have no regrets in my one and only baseball career and so that I can live up to the expectations of everyone who has supported me this time.”
Sasaki had requested to be posted for the 2024 season, but the request was denied.
This rule is the reason why Shohei Ohtani, who was 23 at the time he came to MLB, signed a $2.315 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels in 2017. If Sasaki waited to sign, he could have gone after a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars, like Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who signed with the Dodgers for 12 years and $325 million last December.