Star Free Agent Target For Dodgers May Not Be Available This Winter Anymore: Report

Maren Angus-Coombs | Aug 20, 2024

Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

Japanese sensation Roki Sasaki might not be coming over to Major League Baseball as soon as he hoped.

According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, citing MLB team executives, Sasaki now could be having a change of heart and could stay another season in Japan. 

"Simply, he hasn’t been the same dominant pitcher this year," writes Nightengale. "He is 6-3 with a 2.20 ERA but has struggled with his control. He has a career-low 4.10 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He has struck out 82 batters and walked 20 in just 69.2 innings, yielding 52 hits."

Between his less-than-ideal numbers and his injuries, Sasaki could have changed his mind because he wants to be closer to his peak before making the leap.

Anticipation for Sasaki has been building throughout the season. FanGraphs'Eric Longenhagen wrote about the possibility of Sasaki leaving Nippon Professional Baseball for MLB and drew an intriguing comparison for those unfamiliar with the Japanese right-hander.

“Sasaki has been the LeBron James of Japanese baseball since his junior year, a known generational high school talent who has gone on to deliver on and perhaps exceed expectations at the highest level of Japanese baseball," Longenhagen writes. "He touched 101 in high school and once threw nearly 500 pitches in an eight-day span, including a 12-inning, 194-pitch complete game during which he also hit the game-winning two-run homer."

Sasaki is an unbelievable player for his age. He was the first pick in the 2019 NPB Draft by the Chiba Lotte Marines and had a sub-2.00 ERA in his 2021 rookie season.

However, this season has been a different story. He has been noticeably worse in every category per FanGraphs. His velocity is down, his stuff is not as good, he’s not getting as many whiffs or ground balls, he’s not getting chases, and he’s walking more opponents.

The silver lining in all of this is that Sasaki is only 22 years old. If he posts before turning 25, he would be following the route of Shohei Ohtani and be subject to MLB's international amateur contract restrictions. If he waits until after he is 25, his contact could look a little more like Yoshinobu Yamamoto's — a 12-year, $325 million pact.

If he posts early, Sasaki must really want to play with Ohtani and Yamamoto because following along with his performance this season says he isn't ready to leave Japan.