On Monday, the first full day of Major League Baseball's annual Winter Meetings, Japanese starting pitcher Roki Sasaki was officially posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines. That means teams can soon start formally negotiating a contract with the 23-year-old ace who, now that Juan Soto is off the board, is arguably the most intriguing free agent available.
He has a 100-MPH fastball and a wipeout splitter. Since he's coming to America early in his career, he's subject to MLB's International Bonus Pool rules so big-time spenders like the Mets and Dodgers cannot simply outbid everyone else for his services.
The Padres have not hidden the fact they covet Sasaki, but they've never been quite as overt about the intentions as manager Mike Shildt was. In an interview with MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM, he made a bold statement about where Sasaki is going to land.
"We should be very legitimate contenders," Shildt said. "We fully expect to be right in the mix and actually, at the end of the day, have Sasaki a Padre."
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Even for a skipper who has never been shy about speaking his mind, that is a bold statement. Why does Shildt have such conviction about the Friars landing a generational talent for pennies? Among other factors, he cites the foundation general manager A.J. Preller has put down to give the Padres a presence in the Pacific Rim.
"A.J. has done a tremendous job, the organization has done a tremendous job, of making sure that we’re very relevant internationally. Our roster speaks to it," says Shildt. "We’ve got, obviously [Yu] Darvish and Yuki [Matsui] from Japan. Heck, A.J. speaks Japanese. He worked to learn Japanese to recruit [Shohei] Ohtani years ago. We got [former pitcher and Japanese baseball legend [Hideo] Nomo in the organization. So, we’ve got a lot of inroads to get to Sasaki and make that happen. I know we’re going to put the full-court press to make it happen and we’re very optimistic.”
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The Padres have $6,261,600 in their 2025 international bonus pool and are expected to offer Sasaki every last penny. The Dodgers, the other team most often linked to Sasaki, have only $5,146,200 in their coffers, making this one of the exceedingly rare cases where San Diego has a financial edge on Los Angeles. Once he's on board, he will make the rookie minimum for at least his first two seasons, which is why his posting is so intriguing.
Players of this caliber simply don't come along at such a low price point very often.
Negotiations with Sasaki can start on Tuesday, and while a contract will not be signed before Jan. 15, 2025, the framework for a deal can be in place long before that. If San Diego does, indeed, add the generational talent, the Friar Faithful could be in for one heck of a ride.
