Roki Sasaki’s move to MLB from the Lotte Marines at the age of 23 marks a landmark change in the dynamic that exists between Nippon Professional Baseball and Major League Baseball as well as future negotiations between top amateurs and Japanese clubs.
An NPB player can move to MLB as either a free agent or a posted player whose club agrees to accept a transfer fee if he signs abroad. For a posted star who is 25 or older with six years of pro experience, there are no limits to the rewards he or his club could reap.
By letting Sasaki go now instead of in two years, the Marines cast away the possibility of a transfer fee worth tens of millions of dollars. Sasaki, too, will be unable to reap any significant financial reward until he has spent at least two years in the majors.
Roki Sasaki pitches for the Lotte Marines in a July 12, 2023, game against the Orix Buffaloes in which he struck out 14 batters over seven innings at Kyocera Dome Osaka. (Kyodo)
A year after countryman Yoshinobu Yamamoto moved to MLB on the biggest contract ever offered to a pro baseball pitcher, Sasaki is selling himself cheaply.
This begs the question of why Sasaki wants to go and why Lotte is willing to let him. Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, has addressed the first question, while no one in a position to know is giving believable answers to the second.
When Sasaki was 9 years old, he, his mother and brothers became evacuees after his home was washed away by the March 11, 2011, tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan’s Pacific coast and took the lives of his father and two of his grandparents.
“There are no absolutes in baseball, and through Roki’s eyes, there are no absolutes in life,” Wolfe told reporters in December in Dallas, Texas. “If you look at some of the tragedies that have happened in his life, he does not take anything for granted.”
“It is not an absolute lock, as some people in baseball have assumed, that in two years, he’s going to get a Yamamoto contract. Baseball doesn’t work that way.”
Both Wolfe and Sasaki said he is going now because it has been his dream to go to MLB, motivation that got stronger in March 2023 in the World Baseball Classic, when he pitched for Japan on the 12th anniversary of the deadly 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
But what makes perfect sense for Sasaki, makes none whatsoever for Lotte, which is giving away one of Japan’s brightest talents for next to nothing.
While teams sometimes post players as a reward for years of contributions, Sasaki hardly falls into that category.
He has thrown a perfect game, and put fans in the seats, but has yet to contribute to a championship-caliber season or spend a full season in the starting rotation.
The most likely answer is that Sasaki, the big name in NPB’s 2019 draft, only signed after securing Lotte’s contractual obligation to post him at a time of his choosing.
Roki Sasaki (R) and Japan teammate Yu Darvish pose with their medals after winning the World Baseball Classic championship on March 21, 2023, in Miami, Florida. (Kyodo)
Secret contracts that expressly describe teams’ obligations are common in NPB. However, a deal allowing a young player to leave whenever he chooses would likely never become public since it would make the player appear selfish and the team appear weak.
Other marquee amateur stars may have had similar agreements in the past, think Yu Darvish, Masahiro Tanaka and Shohei Ohtani. But unlike Sasaki, all were league MVPs whose teams received at least $20 million in posting fees.
One of these things is obviously not like the others.
Lotte allowing Sasaki to go when it is so obviously not in the team’s best interest clearly suggests highly regarded teenage amateurs can dictate terms to teams, and that more players in the future may use their leverage to leave early for MLB.
Related coverage:
Baseball: Dodgers agree to terms with star pitcher Roki Sasaki
Baseball: Japanese two-way amateur Shotaro Morii signs big MLB deal
