Neither Shohei Ohtani neither Yoshinobu Yamamoto were part of the Dodgers‘ initial in-person presentation to Japanese pitching star Roki Sasakia meeting that took place at Wasserman Media Group’s Westwood offices before the holidays, according to people with knowledge of the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly about it.
The reason for his absence? They were not invited.
“One of the criteria for the meetings is that Roki asked that no players attend,” Joel Wolfe, the agent representing the 23-year-old right-hander, said in a 20-minute video call with reporters to update negotiations with Sasaki. on Mondays.
“There were a couple of teams that had video of one or two players, but for the most part, it was the general manager, possibly an assistant general manager, the manager, the pitching coach and people from the team’s performance and training department. biomechanics. staff.”
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Wolfe did not say how many teams have met with Sasaki in recent weeks, but it is publicly known that five other clubs (the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants ) met with him, and the San Franciscos. Diego’s Padres are seen as top contenders for his services.
The meetings were limited to two hours in length and were held in Wolfe’s office. There were no visits to stadiums or trips to other cities.
“I think he did it to preserve the integrity of the meeting process,” Wolfe said. “And I think the teams he met would tell you he was committed, he asked questions.”
Wolfe said Sasaki returned to Japan to “meet with his family and his team of people to decide what the next steps are…possibly meet with one or two additional teams or narrow the field, which I think may be more likely.” .
Sasaki, Wolfe said, could also “visit one or two cities as he tries to finalize his decision,” which will likely be made in the week after the international signing period for 2025 opens on Jan. 15.
While Monday’s call didn’t provide many details, it shed some light on the recruiting process and provided insight into the pitcher.
After Sasaki was deployed by the Chiba Lotte Marines on December 9, Wolfe sent a letter to all 30 teams asking them to send “any type of information they would like Roki to review.”
Twenty teams responded, many with dazzling presentations.
“The level of preparation, the videos… it was like the Roki film festival,” Wolfe said. “There were in-depth power point presentations, short films and some teams made actual books. People clearly spent hundreds of hours researching Roki and his personal and professional background, and I can’t tell you how much he and his family appreciated it.”
Sasaski also gave each team he met an “assignment,” Wolfe said, “an opportunity for the teams to really show what they specialize in.”
The Dodgers, who beat the New York Yankees in a five-game World Series in October, have long been seen as favorites to land Sasaki, but if Sasaki ends up in Los Angeles, it won’t necessarily be because of the presence of Ohtani and Yamamoto, who were Sasaki’s teammates in Japanese team winning the World Baseball Classic in 2023.
“We’ve had numerous conversations about team location, market size, team success… but he doesn’t seem overly concerned about whether a team has Japanese players or not,” Wolfe said. “In the past, when I represented Japanese players, that was sometimes an issue, but it was never a topic of discussion.”
The wiry, 6-foot-4, 203-pound Sasaki went 30-15 with a 2.02 ERA in 69 games over four seasons in Japan, striking out 524 and walking 91 in 414 ⅔ innings. He was 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA in 18 games in 2024, with 129 strikeouts and 32 walks in 111 innings.
The highlight of Sasaki’s career was a perfect game against the Orix Buffaloes on April 10, 2022, a game in which he tied a Nippon Professional Baseball record with 19 strikeouts and set an NPB record with 13 consecutive strikeouts.
Sasaki’s stuff is electric. He can generate plenty of swing-and-misses with a lively fastball that sits in the 98 mph range and has touched 102 mph, and complements his heater with a split-finger fastball that throws between 88 and 93 mph. , an 87-91 mph slider, and an occasional 78-81 mph slow curve.
But what makes Sasaki even more coveted is that he is a potential ace that can be acquired at minimal cost.
Because he is not yet 25 years old, Sasaki will be restricted to a minor league contract with a modest signing bonus, similar to when Ohtani, then 23, signed with the Angels for $2.315 million and earned $545,000 (2018), $650,000 (2019) and $700,000. (2020) in its first three seasons.
If he had waited two more years to leave Japan, Sasaki (like Yamamoto, who signed a 12-year, $325 million contract with the Dodgers last winter, he would have positioned himself for a massive nine-figure deal.
“Roki is by no means a finished product; he knows that and the teams know that,” Wolfe said. “He is incredibly talented. We all know it. But he is a guy who wants to be great. You don’t come here just to be rich or get a huge contract. He wants to be one of the greatest of all time. And to be so, he knows he has to challenge himself.
“I think with his experience in the WBC, being around (San Diego pitcher Yu) Darvish and Ohtani, and then seeing (Cubs left-hander Shota) Imanaga come in and dominate at such a level in the first half, he He realized that in order to take him to the next level, he had to come here, play against the best players in the world every day and take advantage of all the resources that Major League teams have to help him become one of the best pitchers in all the times, not just to come. outside of NPB, but in all of Major League Baseball.”
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Sasaki would bolster an already deep Dodgers rotation that is currently led by right-handers Tyler Glasnow and Yamamoto and left-hander Blake Snell, the two-time Cy Young Award winner who signed a five-year, $182 million contract in late November.
Ohtani, the two-way star and 2024 National League MVP who was relegated to designated hitter while recovering from another elbow surgery last season, is expected to return to the mound in early 2025.
Right-handers Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin are also expected to return from elbow surgeries this season, and three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw is expected to re-sign. Young right-handers Landon Knack and Bobby Miller will provide depth.
“He’s someone who is obviously a big priority for us,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said at the winter meetings in early December. “We’re going to do everything we can and we know there are a lot of other teams that will do exactly the same thing.”
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.