The Dodgers meet with Roki Sasaki

Reports regarding a number of clubs that meet with right-handers Roki Sasaki have emerged in recent weeks, with the Mets, Yankees, Cubs, Giants and Rangers all reportedly receiving an in-person meeting with the right-hander as his unusual free agency begins to unfold. Those five clubs have now been joined by a sixth, as Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register reports that the Dodgers had an in-person meeting with the best international player available to teams this winter.

It’s hardly a surprise to hear that the Dodgers have met with the 23-year-old phenom. Los Angeles and San Diego have been seen by many as clear favorites to land the right-hander since before it was clear he would be assigned this winter, and chatter linking Sasaki to the Dodgers in particular became so strong that Sasaki’s agent , Joel Wolfe, issued a strong denial that a “handshake” agreement has already been reached with the club. MLBTR’s Steve Adams and Tim Dierkes were on hand for Wolfe’s subsequent comments regarding Sasaki’s free agency made at the Dallas Winter Meetings, in which Wolfe revealed for the first time that a preliminary round of in-person visits to a corporate headquarters would have place shortly after winter. The meetings had come to an end. At the time, Wolfe noted that Sasaki planned to return to Japan for a week or two to celebrate the holidays before returning for additional visits with teams before his tenure ends next month.

Given this timeline, it is likely that all meetings that have occurred between Sasaki and teams up to this point during the winter have been preliminary in nature, providing Sasaki with the opportunity to become more familiar with organizations for which he had at least some level of interest. the fact that a group of six clubs reached that stage is not necessarily exhaustive, and it is entirely possible that other clubs met with Sasaki before the holidays without the meeting being made public. That could include the Padres, who have long been considered a potential front-runner for Sasaki’s services along with the Dodgers.

The 23-year-old’s combination of incredible talent and unique circumstances make him perhaps the most sought-after player available this winter. The righty’s career 2.10 ERA in 394 2/3 NPB innings at age 23 with his prime still ahead of him would certainly put him firmly in the conversation for a massive payout in free agency in the wake of Sasaki’s compatriot Yoshinobu Yamamoto signing a 12-year, $325 million contract with the Ddogers last winter via the publishing system. This type of financial gain will not be available to Sasaki, however, as he is under 25 years old and is therefore considered an international amateur under MLB rules. This means he will sign a minor league contract with a bonus limited to the signing club’s international bonus pool space, a reality that essentially removes the financial advantages and disadvantages that clubs typically deal with in free agency. Shohei Ohtani he famously went through the same process when he first moved to the MLB, and in doing so surprised the baseball world by landing with the Angels.

Virtually any team could benefit from adding a pitcher with Sasaki’s talent to their rotation, and the Dodgers are obviously no exception. Even after signing Blake Snell to a five-year deal earlier this winter with the veteran Clayton Kershaw Widely expected to reunite with the club later in the offseason, the Dodgers’ rotation is sorely lacking in certainty. Snell, Kershaw, Ohtani, Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Tony GonsolinAND Dustin May it’s a formidable group of pitchers who could all generate All-Star-caliber performances in 2025, but each has major injury issues and can’t be counted on to make anything like 30 starts in a season. Adding Sasaki to the mix would give the club another high-quality rotation option to work with, and the on-paper glut of starting pitching options should make it easy for L.A. to handle the right-handed innings after he’s slowed by the shoulder and oblique injuries in recent years while pitching for the Chiba Lotte Marines of the NPB.