MIAMI, FLORIDA – MARCH 20: Roki Sasaki #14 of Team Japan pitches in the first inning against Team Mexico during the World Baseball Classic Semifinals at loanDepot park on March 20, 2023 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images)
Major League Baseball's off-season buzz has been centered on questions about big time, big name free agents:
Will the Padres keep Jurickson Profar in town long-term? Is Juan Soto really going to get more than $600 million? Where will Cy Young Award winners Corbin Burnes and Blake Snell land?
All of them are known commodities and all will be paid handsomely. However, the player that could very well have the biggest impact is a mystery to most North American baseball fans. If he lands in San Diego he will be the missing piece of a championship puzzle. So, let's get to know a little more about The Monster of the Reiwa.
Roki Sasaki is a 23-year-old for the Chiba Lotte Marines who's already being hyped as one of the greatest pitchers in Japanese baseball history. His nickname suggests as much.
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Japan's Reiwa Era (or Reiwa Period) started in 2019. In overly simplistic terms, an era lasts as long as an emperor is in power. So, loosely translated, Sasaki being called The Monster of the Reiwa is his peers acknowledging him as the best player of an entire generation.
The international baseball world was put on notice a couple of years ago when Sasaki threw a perfect game, including 19 strikeouts, before his 21st birthday.
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That performance was eerily similar to a 21-year-old Stephen Strasburg tossing a no-hitter with 17 punchouts for San Diego State. Amazingly, and I do not say this lightly, Sasaki's stuff is even better.
During the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Sasaki's ridiculous arsenal was on display against Major League hitters and the kid was dominant. Nearly three-quarters of his fastballs topped 100 MPH. What's scary is that high-octane four-seamer might be his second-best pitch.
The splitter is the national pitch of Japan. Hideo Nomo was the first to bring it to America, with devastating effects. Former Boston Red Sox pitching coach Joe Kerrigan called it the "splitter from hell" and refused to catch Nomo in batting practice. Since then it's been in the arsenal of several pitchers from the Pacific Rim, including Shohei Ohtani, Kodai Senga, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Sasaki's is considered the best one yet. And when he plays his heater off his split, it's borderline unfair to opposing hitters. Just ask All-Star outfielder and MLB postseason hero Randy Arozarena what it's like to face Sasaki.
Now that we've shared all the superlatives about how good this guy is, let's get to the part about him helping the Padres win a World Series. Most industry insiders feel the Padres and Dodgers are the two favorites to land him. What makes this pursuit so intriguing is it's going to be one of the very few times where the Friars have a financial advantage over their big-market rivals.
Sasaki is not old enough to be considered a full-fledged free agent like Yamamoto or Senga were. So, The Monster is subject to MLB's international bonus pool rules. Each team has a predetermined about of money it can spend on all of its international free agents during the year.
Since the Dodgers blew through the Competitive Balance Tax threshold, and signed Ohtani, who had a qualifying offer from the Angels, L.A. has the lowest amount of available cash at just over $5.1 million. The Padres can spend a little more than $6.2 million on its class. Even if they gave it all to Sasaki it would be a bargain.
San Diego used a similar strategy the last two seasons on Ethan Salas and Leodalis DeVries, the top players available in 2023 and 2024. Both are now considered can't-miss prospects that could be in the big leagues in the next two to three years.
After his signing bonus, Sasaki will be subject to MLB's rules on player salaries. That gives whichever team that signs him at least five years of contractual control with a salary of less than $1 million in each of the first two seasons.
Basically, he's a slightly more advanced Paul Skenes with more professional innings under his belt. The fact that he's willing to make tens of millions of dollars less over the next several years just so he can play against the best in the world speaks volumes about what truly drives Sasaki (and is exactly what Ohtani did when he came to the United States in 2018).
The Padres know they'll have Dylan Cease, Michael King, and Yu Darvish at the top of their rotation in 2025. But, with Joe Musgrove out for the year after have elbow reconstruction surgery, they don't have that fourth ace that took them to the NLDS and made them the only team to challenge the Dodgers in the playoffs. Sasaki would give San Diego ridiculous depth in the starting rotation that few teams, even Los Angeles with Ohtani back on the mound, will be able to match.
And, since it would cost them next to nothing, it would address the hole in the pitching staff without hindering their ability to sign other free agents. Bottom line:
Sasaki signing with the Friars would start a series of dominoes falling that makes them even better than they were in 2024 and certainly good enough to become favorites to win the National League pennant. Oh, and if you're looking for another reason the Padres are legitimate contenders for Sasaki?
His idol ... and the man who has worked with him on developing his slider ... is Darvish.
The international signing period opens on January 15. It could be a Monster day in the history of San Diego baseball.
