Inside The Mets

Mets Deemed Top-Three Destination For 'Japanese Ace'

The New York Mets appear to be top players in the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes.

Grant Young

Mar 20, 2023; Miami, Florida, USA; Japan starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (14) delivers a pitch during the first inning against Mexico at LoanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Mar 20, 2023; Miami, Florida, USA; Japan starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (14) delivers a pitch during the first inning against Mexico at LoanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
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There have been multiple reports in recent weeks about the New York Mets showing interest in 23-year-old Japanese pitching phenom Roki Sasaki.

ESPN insider Jeff Passan wrote in a December 7 article that the Mets are among the teams, "expected to be significant players in the Sasaki sweepstakes", and on December 10 Sasaki's agent Joel Wolfe said that his client — who is 29-15 with a 2.10 ERA and 505 strikeouts in 394.3 innings through four seasons in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league — could handle playing in New York.

Sasaki's willingness to play in the Big Apple plus the Mets' clear desire to improve their roster by any means necessary is likely what made Bleacher Report's Zachary Rymer call them the third most likely team to sign Sasaki in a December 15 article.

"If Sasaki desires the biggest platform possible, the Mets are one of just two teams that can offer him a chance to pitch in baseball's largest market. And right now, they can make a more compelling case than the other one," Rymer wrote.

"Whereas the Yankees are an older team with an uncertain future, the Mets are a team on the rise. They just came within two wins of making it to the World Series, and now they have a $1.1 billion star duo in Soto and Francisco Lindor. They may also have an ace in the hole in pitching coach Jeremy Hefner.

"There's a realistic scenario in which the Mets become the Dodgers of the East Coast. And if so, the franchise's 38-year championship drought is likely on borrowed time," Rymer continues.

Sasaki becoming a Met would be another massive acquisition in what has already been an extremely successful offseason.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the New York Yankees, the New York Mets, and Women’s Basketball for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years. He believes Mark Teixeira should have been a first ballot MLB Hall of Fame inductee.

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