Sasaki, who can sign with any MLB team starting Wednesday, is in high demand and widely believed to be courted by multiple teams
Is it another tease with a prominent Japanese baseball player or are the Blue Jays in the serious running for right-handed pitching sensation Roki Sasaki?
No matter how it plays out, a report suggesting the 23-year-old star — who is widely regarded as the next great thing to come out of Japan — has visited Toronto to meet with the Jays certainly has Toronto management at the centre of baseball talk once again.
Citing “sources briefed on the meetings” The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported on Monday that Sasaki visited Toronto last week and met with Jays officials to discuss the possibility of making his entrance to the big leagues here.
Sasaki, who can sign with any MLB team starting Wednesday when the international signing period opens, is in high demand and widely believed to be courted by multiple teams. Rosenthal lists heavy hitters such as the Los Angeles Dodgers (home of the ultimate Japanese superstar, Shohei Ohtani), the San Diego Padres, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers as the other key players beyond the Jays.
Landing Sasaki would be a huge acquisition for Jays general manager Ross Atkins. The team had seriously pursued Ohtani not once but twice — first in 2017 before he began his North American career with the Los Angeles Angels and more prominently last winter when they were one of the finalists before the superstar settled on the Dodgers.
Sasaki and his representatives surely sought out the opinion of Yusei Kikuchi, who enjoyed his time with the Jays until he was dealt to the Houston Astros at the trade deadline last summer. And perhaps the city has appeal to Sasaki’s camp in that it is away from the brighter lights of the sport and, in the case of the Dodgers, from the shadow of his compatriot, Ohtani.
So now a return to a familiar narrative for a Jays front office desperate to improve a team that finished last in the American League East and is in danger of losing home-grown stars Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette to free agency following the current season.
They’ve been linked to so many prominent free agents over the past couple of winters that it’s becoming a storyline — and not a positive one — around baseball. Last year it was Ohtani and, this off-season, it was slugger Juan Soto, who eventually signed with the Mets for a whopping $750 million US.
Should the Jays somehow land Sasaki, the team would add a potentially elite arm to the rotation and acquire a prospect that has been highly touted to be an impact player for several years.
Among the many attractions at this point is the fact that under international signing rules, teams can only sign Sasaki to a major-league minimum salary with a signing bonus that can only max out in the $7-million range.
Of course, for all those reasons, Sasaki is in huge demand from virtually every team across baseball. Sasaki’s agent has revealed that 20 MLB teams made presentations for his services, although not all were granted the opportunity to meet with him.
As a player, Sasaki has impressed North American scouts for years now dating back to his rookie season in Japanese pro ball, when he pitched a perfect game with 19 strikeouts for his club, Chiba Lotte. Last year, he had a 2.35 ERA in 18 starts for that team with 129 strikeouts in 111 innings of work.
So far the fruit for Atkins work this off-season has been limited, though there’s still time to add to the roster before spring training gets underway in Florida next month.
The major acquisition thus far has been reliever Jeff Hoffman, who was signed last week to be the team’s replacement for Jordan Romano as closer. Prior to that, the Jays acquired elite defending second baseman Andres Gimenez via trade with the Cleveland Guardians.
Besides Soto, the Jays had reportedly been “in” on negotiations with Corbin Burnes (who signed with Arizona) and former Toronto star Teoscar Hernandez, who signed a deal to remain with the Dodgers.
And now with Sasaki, a game all too familiar to the Jays is once again on.