Should the Seattle Mariners Make a Run at Japanese Pitcher Roki Sasaki in Free Agency?
Over the last few days, we've learned that Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki is set to be posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines this offseason.
Because he hasn't been a professional long enough in Japan, Sasaki will receive a very modest contract in the United States. He'll be subject to international signing bonus pool money and should get a deal of less than $10 million.
As a result of that, every team in baseball can afford him. And every team should be interested to some degree. Just 23 years old, Sasaki has a fastball in the upper 90s and a devastating splitter.
Roki Sasaki ➡️ MLB Bound!?@jonmorosi details the posting of the 23-year-old Japanese phenom and mentions the Dodgers, Padres, Mets and Yankees among teams expected to be at the forefront in free agency. pic.twitter.com/Tc0kPL5j07
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) November 9, 2024
The following comes from MLBTradeRumors:
Writing for Baseball America in 2023, Kyle Glaser projected Sasaki as an ace who’d warrant the first overall pick if he were in the domestic amateur draft. Glaser ranked Sasaki as the most talented non-MLB player in the ’23 World Baseball Classic, one spot ahead of Yamamoto. Sasaki struck out 11 hitters over 7 2/3 innings of four-run ball for Japan’s championship team.
The 6’2″ hurler has posted dominant numbers on a rate basis in NPB. He has a career 2.10 earned run average in nearly 400 innings. This year’s 2.35 ERA was the highest of any of his four seasons. In a relative down year, Sasaki punched out nearly 29% of batters faced against a manageable 7.1% walk percentage.
Sasaki's fastball velocity trended down this season, at just over 97 MPH. That's still excellent, but it's lower than the 99 MPH average he had previously.
On the surface, the Seattle Mariners don't need a starting pitcher. The group of Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo is arguably the best in baseball. However, bringing in Sasaki could do wonders for Seattle on multiple fronts.
First, if the team were to sign Sasaki, they could potentially trade away one of their other pitchers. While no one wants to do that, trading from the position of power is likely the quickest and most effective way for Seattle to get the bats it needs to fill out the lineup.
Furthermore, there are concerns over the workloads of Seattle's pitchers. Signing Sasaki would allow the M's to deploy a six-man rotation at times and help keep everyone fresh for a hopeful playoff run. It would also provide depth to the rotation in case any pitchers were injured.
While the Dodgers appear to be the heavy favorite for Sasaki's services, the Mariners have had plenty of success with Japanese players in the past, which would be a great selling point in negotiations. Ichiro, Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Kenji Johjima and Kaz Sasaki have all been big parts of Mariners teams and had individual success. Yusei Kikuchi also made an All-Star Game with Seattle in 2021.
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