Japanese ace Roki Sasaki to be posted, becoming a top Dodgers free-agency target

On the first day of October, two Dodgers executives were on the other side of the world.

Shortly after the end of the regular season, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and vice president of player personnel Galen Carr were in Japan on a scouting trip.

The center of their attention: phenom pitcher Roki Sasaki.

For the last several years, the Dodgers’ front office has adored Sasaki, enamored by a dazzling repertoire headlined by a triple-digit fastball. The only question was when the right-hander would come across the Pacific.

Late Friday night, they finally got their answer.

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The Chiba Lotte Marines, Sasaki’s team in the Nippon Professional Baseball league, announced they will be posting the 23-year-old star for Major League Baseball teams to sign this winter.

“From the time he joined the organization, we were told by him of his dream to play in America,” Chiba Lotte general manager Naoki Matsumoto said in Japanese in a release. “Taking into account the last five years as a whole, we have decided to prioritize his thoughts. We are hoping he does his best as a representative of Japan. We are cheering for him.”

In Los Angeles, the Dodgers’ offseason just got a lot more interesting.

While Sasaki doesn’t have the big-league credentials of other top free-agent pitchers, he is viewed as having huge potential, and thanks to MLB rules regarding international free agents, will be able to be signed at a fraction of the cost.

Had Sasaki waited two more years, he would have been free to sign like a normal free agent. Last winter, Yoshinobu Yamamoto got a record $325-million contract from the Dodgers coming over from Japan. Sasaki might have been positioned to rival it.

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But because Sasaki is being posted under the age of 25, he will be limited to a minor-league contract with a modest signing bonus; similar to when Shohei Ohtani, then also 23, signed with the Angels before the 2018 season for just $2.3 million.

Also like Ohtani, Sasaki will be under club control with whichever team he signs with for six seasons, like any other rookie.

It makes Sasaki a dream target for the Dodgers; a gifted, young, cost-controlled arm to reinforce — if not drastically improve — their starting rotation.

Over the last several seasons, the Dodgers have dedicated considerable scouting efforts to evaluate Sasaki’s development. Last winter the team hoped he would be posted. But, after a drawn-out saga with his Japanese team, Sasaki wound up staying.

He had one of his most complete seasons, winning a career-high 10 games with a 2.35 earned-run average. And one of his best starts came that day Friedman was in attendance: a one-run, 10-strikeout complete game.

“Pitched well,” was all Friedman was willing to reveal a few days later.

Now that Sasaki’s team will begin the process of posting him — his maximum singing bonus reportedly will depend on whether he is classified in the 2024 or 2025 international signing class, but wouldn’t be much more than Ohtani’s — he is expected to become one of the Dodgers’ top offseason targets.

The team already has two Japanese stars in Ohtani and Yamamoto, who bucked the notion that Japanese big leaguers prefer not to play on the same team. And the Dodgers would give Sasaki the chance to instantly compete for a World Series title, entering 2025 as defending champions and favorites to repeat — especially if they could bolster their starting pitching.

“Obviously we can never have enough pitching, as we’ve learned,” general manager Brandon Gomes said Wednesday, after the Dodgers won the title despite having one of the most injury-plagued pitching staffs. “So pitching will be a priority.”

Gomes declined to discuss Sasaki during his media scrum at the general manager’s meetings in San Antonio since the pitcher hadn’t been posted yet. But Sasaki’s potential speaks for itself.

While he’s had some durability issues in Japan, pitching more than 100 innings in just two of his four seasons, he had a 2.10 ERA while averaging 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings.

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“From the time I joined the organization until now, I only have gratitude for how they have continuously lent me their ear regarding my future challenge in MLB and now given me permission to be posted,” Sasaki said in Japanese in a statement.

“In my five years with the Marines, there were many parts that didn’t go well, but I was supported at all times by teammates, staffers, the front office and fans, and I was able to reach this point focusing only on baseball. So that I don’t have regrets in my one and only baseball career, and so that I can respond to the expectations of those who gave me a push in the back, I do my best to rise from a minor league contract to become the No. 1 player in the world.”

To repeat: His goal is to become the top player in the world.

There will be a long line of teams trying to woo Sasaki. Like with Ohtani, his low cost and highly touted skill set will lead to all sorts of potential suitors. But there has been much speculation around the industry that the Dodgers are the favorites to land him.

They got Ohtani. They got Yamamoto. And they’ve been scouting Sasaki for several years, awaiting the moment he could be next.

Staff columnist Dylan Hernández contributed to this report.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.