Japanese Pitcher Rōki Sasaki To Join MLB In 2025

Japanese Pitcher Roki Sasaki To Join MLB In 2025

23 year old pitching sensation Roki Sasaki will be posted by his Nippon Professional Baseball Team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, which will allow him to join 1 of the 30 MLB clubs for the 2025 season.

“I am very grateful to the team for officially allowing me to post,” Sasaki said in a social media post. “There were many things that did not go well during my five years with the Marines, but I was able to get to this point by concentrating only on baseball, with the support of my teammates, staff, front office, and fans. I will do my best to work my way up from my minor contract to become the best player in the world, so that I will have no regrets in my one and only baseball career and live up to the expectations of everyone who has supported me.”

Because of his young age, Sasaki will still be considered an international amateur free agent and can only sign a minor league contract, which drastically limits how much teams can pay him — and how much Lotte will receive via the associated 20% posting fee.

Armed with a fastball that regularly hits 100+ mph on the radar gun, and a plus splitter & slider, Sasaki is widely considered one of the top players not currently in the Major Leagues on the planet. Every front office around the league is expected to make a pitch for his services, as executives believe his pitching skillset is similar to that of fellow countryman Shohei Ohtani.

The hard throwing righty has amassed a 29-15 record with a 2.10 ERA and 505 strikeouts since joining the NPB. He famously threw a perfect game on April 10th, 2022, was named a 2x NPB All-Star, set the NPB record for strikeouts in a game with 19, and once struck out 13 consecutive batters which is believed to be a professional world record.

He represented Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, earning a gold medal in the process. His International debut vs. the Czech Republic was as impressive as they come as he struck out 8 batters in 3.2IP, with no earned runs allowed.

His fastball in the WBC game vs. Mexico averaged 100.5mph, rocketing him up scouts draft boards. Sasaki had previously asked to be posted in 2023, however Lotte ultimately opted against allowing their prized frontline starter to leave the club. That being said, his departure was long considered a foregone conclusion, the only question was whether he would stick around long enough to command hundreds of millions of dollars like Yoshinobu Yamamoto, or take a similar path to Ohtani who joined the Angels for a $2.315M signing bonus.

While every MLB General Manager has already done their homework on the Japanese star, it’s widely believed that the Dodgers, Padres, Mets, Yankees, Cubs, Blue Jays, and Rangers will make strong pushes to acquire his services.

Sasaki instantly joins the likes of Juan Soto, and Corbin Burnes in the upper echelon of free agency this winter, however he will command significantly less money as an international amateur, meaning that all 30 clubs have a realistic shot of landing him.

Photo: Orixbaseballclub. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.