Jan 13, 2025, 05:03 PM ET
NEW YORK — The New York Yankees have been informed that Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki won’t be signing with the club, according to the YES Network in a story confirmed my multiple outlets.
The Texas Rangers and New York Mets have also been taken off Sasaki’s list, according to multiple reports, and the San Francisco Giants have announced that they’re out of the negotiations. And all the while, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres remain the considerable favorites to sign the 23-year-old right-hander, with the Toronto Blue Jays another possibility.
Every franchise in Major League Baseball was expected to have interest in the phenom, and under MLB’s international amateur signing rules and the posting system between MLB and Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, Sasaki can sign with a team during a window starting 9 a.m. EST Wednesday and ending 5 p.m. EST on Jan. 23.
Because Sasaki is under 25 and has not played six seasons in NPB, he is classified as an international amateur and limited to a minor league contract subject to international signing bonus pools, which range from $7,555,500 to $5,146,200. Starting Wednesday, teams may make trades to increase their signing bonus allotment by up to 60% from their initial figure.
Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, has not publicly identified teams under consideration. Sasaki has been said to also have met with the Chicago Cubs, as well as the Giants and Mets before the latter two fell from his list.
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It’s been a unique courtship for Sasaki, as according to Wolfe, market size, living dynamics and even tradition of winning aren’t the foremost priorities.
“He doesn’t seem to look at it in the typical way that other players do,” Wolfe said last month. “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.”
Sasaki’s fastball tops 100 mph. He was 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA in 18 games last year, striking out 129 hitters in 111 innings in a season limited by shoulder inflammation. He has a 29-15 career record with a 2.10 ERA over four injury-shortened seasons with the Marines.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
