Meet Roki Sasaki, MLB’s next free agent superstar

By Jamie Barton, CNN

(CNN) — The ink is barely dry on Juan Soto’s record-breaking contract with the New York Mets, but already MLB franchises are again looking for a shiny new toy.

Enter Roki Sasaki, the 23-year-old star who has torn it up in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and is ready to make the journey across the Pacific.

With the news that his team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, has posted Sasaki, MLB teams now have until January 23 to try and convince the pitcher that they are the perfect place to begin the next stage in his career.

Who is Roki Sasaki?

Despite only turning 23 in November, the six-foot-two right-hander is already one of the best pitchers in the world.

2024 saw him go 10-5 with an ERA of 2.35 across 18 games, striking out 129 batters in 111 innings along the way.

Sasaki’s career stats make for even better reading, with the so-called “Monster of the Reiwa Era” recording an ERA of just 2.02, picking up 524 strikeouts in 414 2/3 innings.

Having broken Shohei Ohtani’s record for the fastest pitch thrown by a Japanese high school player (101 mph), Sasaki has been known to MLB executives for some time.

He first began turning the heads of American fans in April 2022 when he pitched a perfect game against the Orix Buffaloes. It was the 16th perfect game in NPB history and the first in 28 years, but even more impressive was the manner in which Sasaki went about it – 13 straight strikeouts between the first and fifth innings, a new world record to top the 10 consecutive Ks achieved by Corbin Burnes, Tom Seaver and Aaron Nola in MLB. His 19 strikeouts in total also matched the all-time NPB record.

Clearly not one for resting on his laurels, the then-20-year-old went out and threw another eight perfect innings in his very next start, amassing another 14 Ks and striking out the side in the eighth inning before being taken out by his manager.

Sasaki fever truly reached the US the following year when he was part of Samurai Japan’s 2023 World Baseball Classic win, alongside Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Sasaki continued his impressive strikeout record, punching out 11 over 7 2/3 innings.

The right-hander has relied on remarkable velocity, his fastball clocking in at a peak of 102.5 mph. Combined with a vicious splitter, which is one of the best in the world right now, Sasaki has proved unstoppable at times.

“His split-finger fastball is just absolutely devastating. It flummoxes batters,” Jason Coskrey, Japanese baseball writer for The Japan Times, told CNN Sport.

“He’s got the goods, he’s big. He’s pretty wiry, he doesn’t have a lot of muscle on him, but he’s got good height, he’s got amazing power with his pitches, and he’s a phenomenal talent.”

Sasaki’s former manager and teammates are very much in agreement.

“When I saw him pitch for the first time in the bullpen at the Ishigaki Island camp in 2020, it was a shock (I haven’t experienced) since I first saw Hideo Nomo,” said coach Masato Yoshii in a statement in November.

“It’s well known his talent is pretty much unmatched,” former White Sox draftee James Dykstra, who pitched alongside Sasaki with the Marines last year, told MLB.com. “I came back from watching that bullpen and said, ‘This is probably one of the greatest pitchers I’ve ever seen live.’

“Every time he pitched was more and more impressive. I can’t think of a single person that has this much raw talent.”

Why is his free agency different from others?

His outstanding velocity at such a young age has inevitably drawn comparisons with Ohtani, but the similarities do not end there.

Much like Ohtani did when he signed with the Los Angeles Angels in 2017, Sasaki will earn a fraction of what he is likely worth due to his age. Foreign-born players are subject to international bonus pool money restrictions, limiting what they can earn.

To get around this, players have to be 25 or older and have played for at least six seasons in a foreign league which is recognized by MLB.

When Sasaki, who has been posted earlier than is typical, eventually does sign, his contract will be far closer to the $2.315 million deal signed by Ohtani with the Angels than the $325 million contract that Yamamoto agreed with the Los Angeles Dodgers last year at the age of 25.

“He’d get a crazy contract, but the rules are the rules,” explained Coskrey. “Sasaki, he probably projects to have a higher ceiling than Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and getting him so young, I think he would get something like that (salary) too.”

It is a mark of how much Sasaki wants to get started in the US that he is choosing to bet on himself rather than wait two years for what would likely be a huge contract.

“I can only express my gratitude to the team, who have always listened to me about my future plans to challenge the MLB since I joined the team, and have now officially allowed my posting,” he said in a statement in November.

“I will do my best to become the best player in the world who has come up from a minor league contract so that I will have no regrets in my one-time baseball career and live up to the expectations of everyone who has supported me.”

Which team will he join?

According to his agent, Joel Wolfe, more than half of MLB teams have scouted Sasaki in the last year. The Dodgers have been touted by some as early frontrunners.

“He’s someone that is obviously a major priority for us,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said per MLB.com. “We’re going to do whatever we can and know that there are a lot of other teams that are going to do the exact same thing.”

One of those teams is the San Diego Padres, who have come out swinging in the race for the Japanese star.

“We should be very legitimate contenders,” manager Mike Shildt told MLB Network Radio. “We fully expect to be right in the mix and actually, at the end of the day, have Sasaki a Padre.”

In Yu Darvish, Coskrey explains, the Padres have a pitcher who many young Japanese players look up to.

“Darvish is like a hero figure to a lot of Japanese players,” he said. “He was a big mentor to them during the World Baseball Classic. I think he may have been the most popular guy on the team. Obviously, Ohtani with everything, but Darvish is sort of revered, so I wouldn’t count out the Padres either.”

With the New York Yankees, Mets and Boston Red Sox also very much in the conversation, and Sasaki reportedly planning to wait until the 2025 international amateur signing period begins on January 15, it remains to be seen where he will end up.

But, as arguably the biggest talent to come out of Japan since Ohtani, you will soon be seeing a lot more of Roki Sasaki.

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CNN’s Yumi Asada contributed reporting.