synnbiob
Related Articles
This year’s free-agent pool potentially just got a lot more intriguing.
The Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League announced that they have begun the process of posting star pitcher Roki Sasaki to MLB.
Unlike when Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed a record-breaking 12-year, $325 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers last off-season, Sasaki is considered an international amateur free agent and would be subject to MLB’s international amateur signing bonus pools, so he won’t be able to sign for more than any team’s existing pool.
Each assigned bonus pool fell between $4,652,200 to $7,114,800 for the period of Jan. 15 through Dec. 15 this year.
It seemed unlikely that the Marines would post Sasaki, due to the agreement between MLB and NPB that pays the posting club a percentage of the total value of the contract.
So, by posting him now, Chiba Lotte is potentially losing out on millions of dollars as it will receive a 20 per cent posting fee.
All 30 teams will have 45 days to negotiate a contract with Sasaki once he is officially posted.
A six-foot-two right-hander with a fastball that touches 100 m.p.h. and a devastating splitter, Sasaki posted a 2.35 ERA over 111.0 innings with the Marines in 2024. He also struck out 129 hitters while walking just 32.
Sasaki rose to prominence as one of the best young pitchers in baseball in 2022 and pitched for the World Baseball Classic Japanese squad the following spring.
Over four seasons with Chiba Lotte, he owns a 2.02 ERA with 524 strikeouts in 414.2 innings.
