Every Single GM in MLB Expects Roki Sasaki to Sign With Dodgers
Today at 07:26 PM
Japanese free agent Roki Sasaki isn’t expected to sign with anyone until after Jan. 15, but the Los Angeles Dodgers reportedly are the clear favorite.
On a podcast episode of Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney from Nov. 14, the ESPN reporter mentioned speaking to all 30 general managers about Sasaki.
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“In theory, he could play for any one of the 30 teams because he’s not going to get a big free agent deal the way (Yoshinobu) Yamamoto did last winter. He’s going to wind up taking a very minimal deal the way Shohei Ohtani did,” Olney said of Sasaki. “I had a conversation with executives about this. Thirty out of 30 teams believe he’s going to the Dodgers. That’s the reality, right? But we don’t really know what’s in his heart. You won’t really know until he actually is having these conversations.”
Sasaki made a name for himself in Japan as a 19-year-old phenom in 2021, delivering a stellar 1.84 ERA across 16 starts. His international breakout came in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, where he shared the spotlight in Japan's elite rotation alongside Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
The 6-foot-3 right-hander has dominated over four seasons, posting a 2.02 ERA, 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings, 2.0 walks per nine, and 6.0 hits per nine.
Now, all signs point to Sasaki making his long-anticipated leap to Major League Baseball in 2025.
How much will a pitcher like Sasaki earn once he makes a name for himself in North America?
"A lot," one international scouting director told Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com.
That director declined to define "a lot," but keeping Yamamoto's 12-year, $325 million deal with the Dodgers in mind, another scouting executive tried to find some parameters, per Mayo.
"I think it would be $275-300 million if he was in an open market, for 10 years — that's what I would think he'd get," he said. "The sky is the limit for this guy."
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Photo Credit: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports
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