Japanese pitching star Roki Sasaki says he is joining the Dodgers

Roki Sasaki, the prized Japanese pitching prospect who has had scouts drooling over his potential since high school, has chosen the Los Angeles Dodgers as his major league team, he announced on Instagram on Friday.

Sasaki called this “a very difficult decision, but I will do my best to make it the right decision when I look back on my baseball career.”

The Dodgers, long seen as the favorites for Sasaki, had recently emerged as one of three finalists for the 23-year-old right-hander, along with the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres. On Friday morning, the Padres began agreeing to deals with their potential international signees in the Dominican Republic, a clear sign throughout the industry that they were out on Sasaki. The Blue Jays thus acquired $2 million in international bonus pool space — along with center fielder Myles Straw — from the Cleveland Guardians in hopes of further enticing Sasaki.

In the end it didn’t matter. A Dodgers team coming off a World Series title with a roster headlined by Japanese compatriots Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto once again got one of the biggest prizes of the offseason.

In the Dodgers, Sasaki joins a team that has built a reputation as one of the best at developing talent and one that expects to field an incredibly deep rotation in 2025. Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow return from last year’s group. Ohtani, who will resume his duties as a two-way player, is added. Blake Snell was signed to a five-year, $182 million contract in November. Clayton Kershaw is also expected to return at some point. And younger arms like Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Bobby Miller remain in the organization, making it easy for the Dodgers to craft a six-man rotation that would lessen Sasaki’s acclimation process.

Because he is under 25 years old and spent less than six seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball, Sasaki will essentially sign a minor league contract and follow the path of a player selected in the amateur draft – able to be selected to the minors, scheduled to earn close to the major league minimum during his first three major league seasons and unable to become a traditional free agent until he reaches six years of service.

Teams were limited to giving Sasaki only their international bonus pools, which ranged from about $5.1 million to $7.5 million at the start of the signing period.

Sasaki has a mesmerizing splitter that has been lauded as one of the best secondary pitches in the world and pairs it with a fastball that reaches 100 mph and adds a slider that has also been considered a plus pitch. In four seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines, Sasaki posted a 2.02 ERA, a 0.88 WHIP and 524 strikeouts against 91 walks in 414 2/3 innings.

In an April 10, 2022 start against the Orix Buffaloes, Sasaki pitched a perfect game while setting an NPB record with 13 consecutive strikeouts. Seven days later, he took the mound again and fired eight perfect innings before being removed from his outing. The following spring, Sasaki showcased his talents on a global stage, forming a star-studded rotation with Ohtani, Yu Darvish, Shota Imanaga and Yamamoto for a Japanese team that won the World Baseball Classic.

For years, major league scouts and managers came to Japan to catch a glimpse of Sasaki and salivate over the possibility of him one day being posted. When it finally took place in early December, upwards of 20 teams made initial pitches, doing so with videos and letters and even books. Sasaki flew to the LA headquarters of his agency, Wasserman, later that month and held meetings with at least eight teams—the Dodgers, Padres, Blue Jays, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, and San Francisco Giants.

Earlier this week, five of those teams were informed they were out of the game, prompting Sasaki to take follow-up meetings in Toronto, San Diego and LA before making his decision.

Sasaki had to choose his new team between January 15, the start of this year’s international signing period, and January 23, the end of his transfer window. His presence on the international amateur market left potential signatories of the three finalists in limbo over deals verbally agreed years in advance, causing particular consternation in the Dominican Republic. The Dodgers, Padres and Blue Jays needed to not only free up their international bonus pools for the potential to land Sasaki, but entertain the possibility of trading for additional cap space in hopes of enticing him further.

Sasaki starred in Summer Koshien, Japan’s preeminent high school tournament, and was ranked No. 1 in the 2019 NPB draft. The Lotte Marines handled him carefully, limiting him to bullpen sessions and simulated games in 2020 and limiting his workload whenever possible thereafter. Sasaki’s numbers dipped slightly last year, his ERA rising to 2.35. His four-seam fastball went from averaging around 98 mph to 96. At some point, the shoulder fatigue set in. There are concerns about how Sasaki will handle a bigger league workload, and many will acknowledge that his command needs improvement.

But few doubt his ceiling.

Within the next handful of years, several prominent evaluators believe Sasaki could become an annual Cy Young contender.