MLB insider’s certainty over Roki Sasaki signing with Dodgers all but ensures he won’t
The Bob Nightengale Jinx has come for Roki Sasaki.
As if this Hot Stove season needed any more juice, Roki Sasaki’s entry into this year’s free agent class has put yet another game-changing talent up for grabs. The Japanese righty already has some of the best pure stuff in the world, and at age 23, he’s yet to scratch the ceiling of his potential. Combine that upside with a bargain-basement contract, and you have the sort of opportunity that simply doesn’t come around very often.
But where will he wind up? Unlike, say, Juan Soto, Sasaki is something of a blank slate. He’s never played in the States before, and he doesn’t have MLB’s preeminent superagent calling the shots for him. We really don’t know what Sasaki might want out of his next team, and that makes it awfully difficult to speculate. Does he want to be on the West Coast? Does he want to be in a big market, or does he prefer relative anonymity? Does he want to be the biggest name on his team’s marquee, or would he be OK playing second fiddle to, say, Shohei Ohtani? Does he want to win a World Series right away, or will he opt for a team with a strong track record of pitching development?
