While the baseball world waits to find out where Juan Soto is going to signAnother marquee free agent will be available in a few days.
Roki Sasaki, 23, will be released and available for tender starting Tuesday, one day after baseball’s winter meetings begin in Dallas. ESPN.com was the first to report the news.
Sasaki is considered one of the best pitchers in the world, with a fastball that frequently hits triple digits on radar guns, to go with two more pitches in his arsenal: a fastball and a split-finger slider. But because of MLB’s rule governing the youngest international free agents, Sasaki will be classified as an amateur free agent, greatly restricting what teams can offer him.
Unlike compatriot Yoshinobu Yamamoto last year, who earned $325 million from the Dodgers, Sasaki must be paid out of the teams’ international bonus allocations. That means he will likely receive a signing bonus of between $5 million and $7.5 million.
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With Sasaki expected to be released on Tuesday, his signing will come within the 2025 international bonds, which begin on January 15.
Over the past four seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines, Sasaki was 29-15 with a 2.10 ERA to go with 505 strikeouts in 394.2 innings.
Unsurprisingly, the Los Angeles Dodgers are considered the industry favorite to land Sasaki, where he would join Japanese stalwarts Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani. Sasaki is said to be a big fan of Yu Darvish, which could give the San Diego Padres a bit of an edge in the bidding process.
Red Sox baseball manager Craig Breslow traveled to Japan in September to scout Sasaki. The Red Sox are looking for a top-line starting pitcher to lead their rotation and have expressed interest in MLB’s top two free-agent starters: left-hander Max Fried and right-hander Corbin Burnes. The team had also been in the running for left-hander Blake Snell, who was picked up by the Los Angeles Dodgers last week.
The Red Sox have had some success landing Japanese stars, starting with Daisuke Matsuzaka, whom they signed in a furious bidding war in December 2006. Most recently, the team won the bid for outfielder/DH Masataka Yoshida, whose performance has been underwhelming in his first two MLB seasons.
Last winter, the team made a $300 million offer for Yamamoto.