In an offseason already featuring the availability of stars like Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes, Alex Bregman, Garrett Crochet, Kyle Tucker, et al., Roki Sasaki isn’t the singular prize. However, the amateur earnings limit placed upon him by the rules of international free agency does make him one of the most valuable players any team could acquire this winter. And the Cubs are among the teams with a ticket in this raffle.
As you’ll recall, the Cubs submitted a presentation to Roki Sasaki roughly three weeks ago and were one of the lucky teams asked to meet him out in Los Angeles. But since then, it’s been mostly radio silence. But tonight, Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, got some messages out there about the process, itself, as well as Sasaki’s preferences and some other useful details. So here they are.
Roki Sasaki Updates
According to Wolfe (via Jesse Rogers), Roki Sasaki wants to come over now (instead of waiting a few years to secure a HUGE bag in free agency), because “seeing (Shota) Imanaga come over and dominate at such a level in the first half, I believe he realized … in order to take it to the next level he had to come here, play against the best players in the world every day and tap into all the resources that MLB teams have to help him become one of the best pitchers in MLB. That’s what he wants.” Okay, breathe. I know it’s very difficult to focus on the actual intent of that message when Shota Imanaga’s name is right there in the quote, because, you know … Imanaga pitches for the Cubs. But I don’t think he was quite saying what we all wish he was. Still … it is definitely nice to see that Roki Sasaki is aware not only of the success Imanaga has had with the Cubs (of course he is, but also perhaps how the Cubs – specifically – were able to help Imanaga succeed in the states right away. The Cubs pride themselves on their pitch lab – yes – but they’ve also made it a point to build up their NPB pipeline and help transition Japanese players more successfully than other organizations.Agent Joel Wolfe on why Sasaki wants to come over: "He's a guy that wants to be great. He's not coming here just to be rich…He wants to be one of the greatest, ever. I see that now. And he's articulated it. To be that, he knows he has to challenge heimself."
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) December 31, 2024 But before you get too excited, here’s a splash of cold water: According to Sasaki’s agent, the righty is not concerned with whether a team has Japanese players on it and actually asked that no current players attend his meetings (which were limited to 2 hours). On the one hand … dangit. The Cubs have two VERY good Japanese stars (Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki), who would have otherwise undoubtedly been a part of the recruiting process. On the other hand, the favored Dodgers have the most famous Japanese baseball player (maybe ever) and also Yoshinobu Yamamoto. And the consensus No. 2 favorites, the Padres, have Yu Darvish lobbying for them. So … maybe that’s a bit of a wash for the Cubs. Sasaki’s agent also confirmed that as many as 20 teams originally submitted interest in Sasaki (… what in the WORLD were the other ten teams doing?). Those teams sent recruiting presentations and videos, while others sent books. Again, we know the Cubs were one of the teams who submitted a presentation, and we’ve heard compliments of their creative pitches for other players in the past. Not every team was invited to meet with Sasaki though, which is a good sign for the Cubs, who did get one of those meetings.Roki Sasaki's agent Joel Wolfe confirms that 20 teams sent presentations to him. Could tell some teams had been working on their presentation for "several months."
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) December 31, 2024Joel Wolfe, the agent for Roki Sasaki, says it's likely that the next step in the process is eliminating some teams but there's a chance 1-2 more teams will get initial meetings.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) December 31, 2024 Interestingly, Wolfe says, Roki Sasaki also gave his teams of interest a “homework assignment to see how they could communicate with him.” I want to say that’s a really smart move, but I think I only like it because I believe the Cubs would have an advantage given their existing Japanese players and translators, etc. In terms of timeline, Wolfe reports that Roki Sasaki has traveled back to Japan for now, but that his next step will be city visits. However, the exact quote is that he might “want to visit one or two cities as he tries to finalize the decision-making process.” We already know that he’s been to Los Angeles, as that’s where the meetings took place, but we don’t know anywhere else. So hopefully someone spots Sasaki at Starbucks in Wrigleyville over the next couple of weeks. On a more specific (and final) point, Wolfe suggests that Sasaki might not make his decision precisely on January 15, when he’s first eligible to sign. I wouldn’t sweat that too much, though, because he has only about a week after that before his 45-day window ends.He said he does not as of this moment see Sasaki signing on Jan. 15 as soon as int'l signing period opens. He said it would likely be somewhere in the window between the 15th and his 45-day deadline. But, I imagine, that could put a hold on some int'l FA activity for teams in mix
— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) December 31, 2024 Read More Details
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