'We were there when no one was': How the Dodgers landed Japanese phenom Rōki Sasaki
2025-02-13
Category: sports

For the second straight offseason, the days leading into one of Japan's most talented baseball exports announcing his MLB destination on Instagram were marked by uncertainty and a push from a surprising suitor.&nbsp; Last winter, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman described the chase for Shohei Ohtani — and the wild 24 hours before Ohtani's announcement, which included erroneous reports about the superstar heading to Toronto and a flight-tracking saga that involved a Shark Tank judge — as "an emotional roller-coaster" that took years off his life.&nbsp; There wasn't a two-time MVP on the line, nor were hundreds of millions of dollars at stake this time around. Nonetheless, similar feelings resurfaced this January as the Dodgers awaited the decision of Rōki Sasaki, the latest pitching phenom out of Japan.&nbsp; Because Sasaki was posted by his club before the age of 25, the flamethrowing 23-year-old was subject to amateur restrictions that limited him only to a minor-league deal and a team's international bonus pool money. Teams in contention for his services were lining up funds for a final push. Just hours before Sasaki announced his decision on Jan. 17, the Blue Jays added $2 million in international bonus pool space by taking on Myles Straw's contract from the Guardians. Concern was mounting in the Dodgers' front office. "Pins and needles," as one executive described it.&nbsp; "I got a text message saying he was going to Toronto," one Dodgers talent evaluator told FOX Sports. "What was going through my mind was all the work that we did that's going to go to nothing. Thank God it wasn't real or wasn't true." A month from now, it’s possible that Sasaki’s first pitch in a regular-season big-league game will be back in his home country at the Tokyo Dome, where the Dodgers will open their season with two games against the Cubs on March 18-19. For now, though, they’re just thrilled to see his No. 11 on a mound at Camelback Ranch. The reigning champions ended up with two of the most coveted pitchers on the market in Sasaki and Blake Snell, who were throwing bullpen sessions next to each other Wednesday, a day after Dodgers pitchers and catchers reported to camp in Arizona. The Dodgers committed $182 million to Snell, including a $52 million signing bonus. Sasaki’s signing bonus, in comparison, was just $6.5 million, illustrating the potential bargain on their hands. Twenty teams submitted presentations to Sasaki's representatives expressing their interest in the pitcher. Eight received in-person meetings, during which they presented their answers to an assignment: Sasaki wanted to know why teams thought his velocity had ticked down last season and how they'd go about trying to get him back on track.&nbsp; Sasaki wasn't bad for the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2024 — he had a 2.35 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and 4.03 strikeout-to-walk ratio — but those numbers represented a considerable decline from his career totals during his standout four-year Nippon Professional Baseball career. The previous year, he had a 1.78 ERA, struck out 135 batters, walked just 17 and allowed one home run in 91 innings.&nbsp; The step back in production was of little concern to MLB teams. The upside in Sasaki's arm was well worth the modest acquisition cost. A talent of his caliber on the open market would have commanded a nine-figure salary. Instead, due to those amateur restrictions, he was set to make only a few million dollars in signing bonus wherever he went.&nbsp; Still, Sasaki's homework assignment left some teams questioning how much proprietary information to divulge to a player who might sign elsewhere.&nbsp; "There are cases where it's, ‘Hmm, I'm not sure, where we're at, is it worth giving it up?'" Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said. "In this case, there's the ability to actually sign him, we'll risk it. We got into it as much as we could because obviously it's a condensed time frame, and a big part of our assessment is getting hands on him, which there wasn't the ability to do. There was much more information shared where, ‘This is what we believe.'" On a positive note, the task presented by Sasaki did give teams a better idea of what he wanted to hear during the pitch and provided them license to address his deficiencies without worrying about insulting or upsetting him. Sasaki recognizes he is not yet the pitcher he hopes to be. Wherever he went, further development would be required for him to realize his enormous potential.&nbsp; "Because there was going to be a limited time for me to understand the differences among the many teams, I just felt like this homework assignment would be a really good opportunity for me to see how the teams think," Sasaki said through an interpreter.&nbsp; Sasaki was posted on Dec. 9, opening a 45-day window for him to select his club. He chose to wait until the 2025 international signing period, when teams' bonus pools would reset. Due to the time crunch, he decided not to travel to visit clubs until he had whittled down his list of suitors to three. That way, he could spend several days in each city and get a better feel for what a normal workday might look like.&nbsp; Two of the three finalists, both West Coast powerhouses, seemed obvious.&nbsp; The Dodgers, fresh off winning the World Series with the help of Japanese stars Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, had long been considered the favorites for Sasaki, so much so that Major League Baseball launched an investigation before he was posted by the Marines to ensure no predetermined deal had already been consummated. The Padres, who nearly toppled the eventual champs in the National League Division Series for the second time in three years and employed a mentor figure to Sasaki in Yu Darvish, also made the cut.&nbsp; The third finalist was more unusual. Toronto did not offer a close proximity to Japan, a recent track record of big-league success or a veteran Japanese player who could help show Sasaki the ropes. Last season, the Blue Jays traded Yusei Kikuchi — who, like Sasaki, hails from Japan's Iwate prefecture — only to then watch Kikuchi soar in Houston as Toronto faded toward a last-place finish. Nonetheless, the Blue Jays, despite missing out on their top targets, have notably made it deep into the conversation for a number of high-profile chases recently, including Ohtani, Juan Soto and now Sasaki, before falling short.&nbsp; After each of Sasaki's visits, his agent thought that team had a chance.&nbsp; "I felt like he could easily go to Toronto, and when we left San Diego, I felt like he could easily choose San Diego," Joel Wolfe said. "I really thought the entire process, it was a coin flip. I had no idea what he was going to say when he ultimately said, ‘OK, it's the Dodgers.'"&nbsp; "It was just pure excitement when we found out," Friedman said.&nbsp;  As close as the Blue Jays and Padres might have gotten, the end result was no surprise. The Dodgers have made the playoffs 12 straight seasons and won the World Series two of the past five years. Despite their sustained excellence preventing them from accessing the top talent at the college and high school ranks, they've still managed to perennially assemble one of the top farm systems in the sport. And, of course, they employ Ohtani, whose face is seemingly on every billboard, street corner and window in Japan, where all of their games are broadcast live and where their apparel is readily available in shops even inside NPB stadiums.&nbsp; "They're everywhere," Wolfe said. "And I think that all the players and fans see the Dodgers every day, so it's always in their mind because of Ohtani and Yamamoto." The Dodgers are even in the process of starting a pilot program to look into adding fan clubs in Japan. The team's immense influence in Asia stretches to Korea, where the Dodgers began the 2024 season. Before their opener against the Padres, they played an exhibition against a Team Korea squad that featured infielder Hyeseong Kim. The Dodgers, in large part because of Chan Ho Park and Hyun-Jin Ryu, were Kim's favorite team growing up. In January, Kim became yet another addition to a revamped Dodgers roster that now features two of the top international free agents on the market in Sasaki and Kim, one of the top aces in Snell and the top reliever in Tanner Scott. This was the type of impact the Dodgers envisioned when they committed $700 million to Ohtani last offseason.&nbsp; "It's like The Avengers," Tyler Glasnow said. "It's like the Monstars. It's the best team I've ever been on."&nbsp; If all of that weren't enticing enough to Sasaki, the Dodgers also happened to be among the first clubs to express interest in him before he had developed his reputation as the next can't-miss prospect out of Japan. They began scouting him during his penultimate year in high school, when Dodgers director of Pacific Rim scouting Jon Deeble was tipped off about an intriguing arm in Ofunato, a city just 50 miles from Hanamaki, where Ohtani and Kikuchi went to high school.&nbsp; "We were up there," Deeble said, "when no one was up there."&nbsp;  Deeble estimates that the Dodgers saw somewhere between 20 and 30 of Sasaki's high school games. Even then, Sasaki's size, flexibility, velocity and ability to spin a breaking ball stood out. Deeble had seen plenty of talent from the area before. He was heavily involved in scouting Ohtani and Kikuchi out of high school and in 15 years in the Red Sox organization prior to joining the Dodgers in 2016 had helped Boston sign Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima and Junichi Tazawa, among other Japanese talents. Throughout that time, he built an information network in Iwate that would help provide more background on Sasaki's work ethic and makeup.&nbsp; Sasaki differed from the other pitchers Deeble had signed and scouted in the area. The right-hander possessed "unbelievable" flexibility, and the Dodgers believe there's room to add a lot more strength to his 6-foot-2-inch frame.&nbsp; "We spoke to his coach, people around that knew him," Deeble said. "I don't think people understand, it's very hard to get to the players. They're very well protected by their coaches, so we were just watching from afar, and he never disappointed." Galen Carr, the Dodgers vice president of player personnel, traveled alongside Deeble to see Sasaki in early 2019. It was freezing at the time in Ofunato, yet Sasaki still delivered a running, riding fastball that touched 100 with a splitter that was "as good as you'll see at that age." Beyond the raw stuff, Sasaki's physicality, mobility, coordination and presence on the mound made him "super projectable."&nbsp; "It&nbsp;was just one of the more intriguing packages at that age that you'll ever come across." Carr said. "We haven't really wanted a high school Japanese player this much since Ohtani." The Dodgers hoped to sign Sasaki straight out of Ofunato, though they realized early on that Sasaki would be NPB bound. The young pitcher also didn't want to forgo the opportunity to pitch at Summer Koshien, a prestigious national high school tournament in Japan, by signing early with an MLB club.&nbsp; They wouldn't land him then, but they would stay diligent.&nbsp; "It was like, ‘Let's show up, let's do the work, let's evaluate him, let's see if this kid's for real,'" Carr said. "Part of that process as well is making the effort and being there, being present, showing interest."  By the summer of 2019 — after breaking Ohtani's high school record with a 101-mph pitch and throwing a 194-pitch, 21-strikeout complete game during Ofunato's regional tournament — Sasaki had earned the distinguished nickname "The Monster of the Reiwa Era," the attention of more MLB scouts and the safeguarding of coaches who were keeping his future in mind.&nbsp; After throwing 194 pitches on a Sunday and 129 in a semifinal victory the following Wednesday, Sasaki hoped to start the next day in the final against Hanamaki, with the winner moving on to represent Iwate at Koshien. In a courageous decision to protect his young pitcher's arm, Ofunato's manager sat Sasaki, despite his desire to play. Without Sasaki on the mound, Hanamaki won in a shellacking.&nbsp; The next few months moved quickly for the 17-year-old, who suddenly had a lot more eyes on him. Sasaki represented Japan at the 2019 U-18 Baseball World Cup in Korea,&nbsp;where he continued to intrigue talent evaluators, then became the top overall pick in the NPB Draft. But he didn't pitch immediately for the Chiba Lotte Marines, who used the 2020 season to rest his arm and limit him to bullpen sessions and simulated games.&nbsp; His innings were further monitored in 2021, though his devastating fastball/splitter helped him excel in an abbreviated season. The next season, he threw a 19-strikeout perfect game at 20 years old, then followed that performance with eight perfect innings. He was even better in 2023, posting a 1.78 ERA with 135 strikeouts in 91 innings. That year, he also starred on the global stage alongside Ohtani and Yamamoto for the World Baseball Classic champs, sitting over 100 mph with his fastball and touching 102.&nbsp;  Whenever his time came to make the MLB jump, the Dodgers wanted to be ready. "We thought Rōki was going to be available two years ago, and then one year ago, and now finally here," Dodgers president Stan Kasten said. "We just try to be flexible, and when there's an opportunity we try to be opportunistic."&nbsp; Carr estimates that he made around 20 trips to Japan the last two years, while Deeble makes about four or five trips a year to Japan, Korea and Taiwan, often knocking each out in one trip. The Dodgers, who also employ a full-time international scout in Japan, tried to have a representative in attendance at every Sasaki start the last two seasons.&nbsp; "Once it was easily determined early on when he was in high school that this was a guy that we really wanted and … his ceiling was as high as any pitcher that we've ever seen, all right, let's do whatever we can to make sure we're there all the time," Carr said. "I think that definitely factored in. I mean, L.A. is L.A., and there are so many reasons why you'd want to choose the Dodgers as an organization as a young high-ceiling Japanese prospect, but we like to think the care with which we approach the process and the intent, we like to think that matters, too." Sasaki, despite his immense upside, does not have the same decorated NPB history as the fellow Japanese stars on his new club. Ohtani had won an MVP and Japan Series title when he made the leap. Yamamoto won three MVPs, three Sawamura Awards (Japan's equivalent to a Cy Young) and a Japan Series title. Sasaki has not won any of the above, has never thrown more than 130 innings in a pro season and combined for just 202 innings his last two years in Japan, limited by shoulder and oblique issues.&nbsp; "I am deeply honored so many teams reached out to me, especially considering I haven't achieved much in Japan," Sasaki said at his introductory press conference.&nbsp; His tools, nonetheless, make talent evaluators salivate.&nbsp; "If he continues to develop, it's Cy Young contender," Gomes said. "I mean, I've seen the Paul Skenes comp. I think it's definitely Cy Young caliber." How quickly Sasaki gets there remains to be seen. The Dodgers believe Sasaki is capable of becoming the best pitcher in the world, but it might take time. He is not yet the polished product that Yamamoto was, and he may not be an immediate star. With a six-man rotation, Ohtani having two-way status and a surplus of starting talent, the Dodgers believe they are uniquely positioned to exercise patience.&nbsp; Sasaki's fastball has garnered headlines and his splitter might already be one of the best in baseball, but the development of his third pitch will be key to his success. The Dodgers don't yet know whether Sasaki's slider will end up looking more like a sweeper or a cutter.&nbsp; "I think the ceiling for Rōki is as high as anyone in baseball, but I certainly would not expect him to come in and finish like top three in the Cy Young in his rookie year," Carr said. "He's got a lot of things that he knows he can work on to improve, and I think that's one of the reasons why he chose the Dodgers, is he felt like we gave him a really good chance to become the best pitcher he can be."  The Dodgers aced the homework assignment, which allowed them to showcase their synergy between departments. Sasaki said the stability of the Dodgers' front office was what stood out most in their initial pitch. They spent most of their time in that initial meeting running through how things would work if he chose the Dodgers. Beyond just sharing the differences they noticed in his delivery over the course of last season, they described to Sasaki how quickly they're able to flag any issues they see both during and between starts.&nbsp; After making the final cut, the Dodgers hosted Sasaki at the home of minority owner Peter Guber and brought their superstars out for one last pitch. Yamamoto was in Japan at the time, but Ohtani was among those in attendance. Sasaki said that having a Japanese player already on the team wasn't a priority for him in his decision-making, but he did want to make sure a Japanese player "would be embraced in the team and the city" of the team he chose.&nbsp; "What I actually told him before signing was, as a player and as a person, I'm just rooting for him to be successful, regardless of whatever team he ends up with," Ohtani said through an interpreter. "Of course I wanted him to be a Dodger, but that was first and foremost the big message." When Sasaki made his decision, he texted Ohtani and Yamamoto to let them know. Ohtani shared the good news with the Dodgers' front office, beating Sasaki's agent to the punch. Then Gomes texted manager Dave Roberts.&nbsp; "My response was some expletives, maybe, but I certainly was excited," Roberts said. "There are a lot of man hours that have been put into this whole process, and a lot of airline miles as well." A massive foothold in the Japanese market was already theirs. Now, MLB's top prospect was, too, and a nearly seven-year pursuit was complete. Rowan Kavner&nbsp;is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at&nbsp;@RowanKavner.&nbsp; Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.