4 Teams Named Favorites for Roki Sasaki (Incredibly Cheap Price Revealed)

Young Japanese pitching sensation Roki Sasaki has officially been posted for Major League Baseball, and his signing price will be incredibly cheap, according to insider Jon Morosi.

Roki Sasaki ➡️ MLB Bound!?@jonmorosi details the posting of the 23-year-old Japanese phenom and mentions the Dodgers, Padres, Mets and Yankees among teams expected to be at the forefront in free agency. pic.twitter.com/Tc0kPL5j07
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) November 9, 2024

The 23-year-old phenom is reportedly better than Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani on the mound, so this will be a mad scramble by teams to woo him.

The cost? Morosi explains:

"The price of acquiring him is quite small, considering his immense talent. Because Sasaki does not have enough service time and age to be considered a 'foreign professional' (like Ohtani and Yamamoto were), he will be part of an MLB team's International amateur signing bonus pool. That likely means a contract on a minor league deal somewhere in the range of $2 or $3 or $4 million."

The four favorites to sign him, per Morosi? No surprises here:

Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
NY Mets
NY Yankees

The Dodgers, of course, already have Sasaki's fellow Japanese brethren Ohtani and Yamamoto, so that seems like a natural fit. The Padres have Yu Darvish, who Sasaki is apparently good friends with, and looked up to growing up.

The two New York teams will be occupied with battling each other over the services of the No. 1 free agent in baseball, Juan Soto. The Mets also have a key Japanese pitching contemporary of Sasaki's, in Kodai Senga.