I Need a List of the Ten Teams "Not Interested" in Roki Sasaki

The Free Friday newsletter

Molly Knight

Jan 03, 2025

Hi friends-

Some housekeeping before we dive in:

Our book club selection for January is “Rickey Henderson: The Life and Legend of a True American Original” by the great Howard Bryant. We will discuss it over zoom the first week of February, date TBD— but I’ll let you know soon.
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Our East Coast Long Game meet-up for 2025 will be in Boston, for Dodgers vs. Red Sox on July 26th or July 27th (we are waiting to see if July 27th will be the Sunday night game before we buy). But mark your calendars if you are interested.

It’s only the third day of the year and we already have a baseball emergency.

Twenty-three year old Japanese pitching phenom Roki Sasaki is going to agree to terms with a Major League Baseball team once the 2025 signing period for international players begins on January 15th. Because Sasaki is not yet 25 years old, he is ineligible for a monster free agent contract like the one his countryman Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed last off-season. Because of his age, he’s only eligible to receive a rookie contract plus a modest bonus from the signing team’s international pool money, which should be between $5 and $7 million.

Here is what Alden Gonzalez at ESPN wrote about how good Sasaki is:

At 23, Sasaki is already one of the world's best pitchers, possessing a triple-digit fastball and a devastating splitter. While playing for the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball over the past four seasons, Sasaki posted a 2.10 ERA with 505 strikeouts and just 88 walks in 394⅔ innings. Because he would be classified as an international amateur -- meaning he would cost a team its international bonus pool and essentially sign a minor league contract, not allowing him to become a traditional free agent until accruing six years of major league service time -- the bidding for his services [is] expected to be fierce.

And the bidding is fierce, with 20 of 30 MLB teams expressing interest by sending power points, flowers, and puppies, if necessary.

Per Gonzalez, “Various reports have listed the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants among the teams that were granted initial meetings, none of which has been confirmed by Sasaki's camp. And though there has been a lot of speculation that the bidding for Sasaki could come down to the Dodgers and Padres, Wolfe said it was important to his client that everyone operate "on a level playing field," prompting specific demands for those initial meetings: that they all last within two hours and take place at Wasserman's L.A. offices. Sasaki stressed that current players not attend, though some sent their pitches over video.”

As for what Sasaki is looking for, Wolfe told Gonzalez that “market size, living dynamics, and even tradition of winning won’t be the foremost priority.”

"He doesn't seem to look at it in the typical way that other players do," Wolfe said. "He has a more long-term, global view of things. I believe Roki is also very interested in the pitching development and how a team is going to help him get better, both in the near future and over the course of his career. He didn't seem overly concerned about whether a team had Japanese players on their team or not, which, in the past, when I represented Japanese players, that was sometimes an issue. That was never a topic of discussion."

OK. So if Joel Wolfe is to be believed, Roki Sasaki does not care if he plays in a big or small city. He does not care if he has a Japanese teammate to hang with. He does not care if the team he signs with is good or not, and doesn’t mind playing on either coast or in the middle of the country.

Given how open minded Wolfe says his client is, it’s absolutely humiliating that a third of the league did not even bother trying to land a potential franchise ace.

There are two scenarios here, and neither are good.

The first is that despite Sasaki being flexible about playing anywhere, he and his agent determined that 10 teams were developmental wastelands not worth a lick of their time, and told them not to waste theirs trying.

The second if that ten GMs know their orgs are trash and decided on their own not to bother trying.

Who do we think is on this no-fly list? Colorado for sure? Oakland is a safe bet? Maybe the White Sox given their current mess? The Reds? The Pirates? Who are the other five teams? I’d really like to know which clubs Roki Sasaki thinks would poison his development and derail his career so that we can all stop taking them seriously until they overhaul their organizations via exorcism or sale—whatever comes first. This dovetails with my long-held belief that teams should be forced to make announcements when they drop out of pennant races. Stop wasting our time!!

I can understand a 23-year-old wanting to play in a big city. I can understand a 23-year-old wanting to play in a small market. Since Sasaki is open to both, that means all 30 teams had a shot—especially if he doesn’t care about recent winning track records. And given how cheap he’ll be to sign, we know every team can afford his services. But the ten most dysfunctional orgs won’t get a shot.

Joel Wolfe, if you’re reading this, be a hero and let us know who those teams are in the comments!

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What the Paid list got this week:

A 4,000 word opus about what I got right and what I got wrong about the 2024 MLB season, including links to my ten most-read stories this year.

AROUND THE LEAGUE:

The Dodgers made the Teoscar Hernández signing official today. He got 3/$66 million, which is the exact number sources confirmed to me he was looking for.
Pete Alonso is still waiting for his market to materialize. This is probably because he thinks he’s worth more than teams who want him would like to pay him. Jon Heyman of the NY Post says the Angels are kicking the tires on Alonso, but this is all pretty silly, since the Mets should just hurry up and re-sign him. Although the Mariners could use a bat, and Jerry Dipoto has been awfully quiet this winter….
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the Blue Jays are interested in another top free agent, this time Alex Bregman. The Tigers are reportedly also in on Bregman, as well as Anthony Santander. The Giants still lead the league in finishing second on big-time free agents, but the Blue Jays are starting to give them a run for their (unspent) money.
The Dodgers signed defensive wizard Hyeseong Kim out of Korea today to a three-year deal. Kim plays gold glove defense at shortstop, so hopefully the Dodgers ridiculous plan of saving Mookie Betts’s legs by playing him at short is finally dead. (Betts should play second base, and I’ll scream it into the void until someone listens.) To clear room for Kim, the Dodgers designated former top prospect Diego Cartaya for assignment, a rare whiff for an org that definitely could have sold high on Cartaya before his stock plummeted. Now, they’ll get nothing and hope Cartaya doesn’t turn into the next Salvador Perez for some other team. Gulp.
Speaking of 40-man rosters, I’m contractually obligated to remind you guys that the Boston Red Sox added Jhostynxon Garcia to their 40-man back in November and that his nickname is “The Password.”
Corbin Burnes’ six-year, $210 million deal with the Diamondbacks includes $64 million deferred through 2026, in case you were wondering if teams besides the Dodgers were allowed to do this.
The Orioles are interested in Jack Flaherty. Which reminds me, the Orioles should have traded for Flaherty at the deadline. They signed Charlie Morton to a one-year, $15 million contract today but their rotation just isn’t good enough as it stands right now to compete in October.
That’s all for today! I’ll see paid subscribers over Zoom tomorrow (Saturday) at 12 PM PT for one hour of baseball talk. <3