One year after committing over $1 billion to two Japanese stars, the Dodgers have added a third at a bargain price.
Right-hander Roki Sasaki ended the suspense about where he would make the jump to MLB by posting on Instagram on Friday afternoon that he had signed with the Dodgers.
“I have signed a minor(-league) contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers,” Sasaki posted. “It was a very difficult decision but I will do my best to make it the right decision when I look back after my baseball career.”
The 23-year-old Sasaki will join teammates from the 2023 WBC Samurai Japan team Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a deep Dodgers’ rotation also expected to include Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Tony Gonsolin and, eventually, Clayton Kershaw.
Because he opted to leave NPB before his 25th birthday with less than six years professional experience, Sasaki was included in the 2025 international free agent class. As such, he was limited to signing a minor-league contract for a signing bonus within the signing team’s international bonus pool. That meant no bidding war like the one that led to Yoshinobu Yamamoto signing a 12-year contract for $325 million with the Dodgers last winter.
Instead, the Dodgers had just $5.1 million in a signing bonus to offer Sasaki, one of the smallest international bonus pools in MLB this year. However, the opportunity to play for a perennial contender coming off a World Series title with a sophisticated support system for pitchers and two countrymen already on the roster made the Dodgers the favorites to land Sasaki even before he was posted by his Japanese team, the Chiba Lotte Marines last month.
When Ohtani made the jump to MLB at age 23, he fell into the same international free agency category as Sasaki. The Angels gave Ohtani a $2.3 million signing bonus in December 2017 and paid him roughly the major-league minimum for each of his first three MLB seasons before he became eligible for arbitration.
Considered one of the best pitchers in the world with the potential to dominate MLB hitters at the front of a big-league rotation, Sasaki has touched 102 mph with his fastball and has a devastating splitter to go with it.
In four NPB seasons, Sasaki was 29-15 with a 2.10 ERA and 505 strikeouts in 394⅔ innings. Last season, he was 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA and missed time with shoulder inflammation which caused his fastball velocity to dip.
When he was posted by Chiba Lotte last month, 20 teams reached out to his agent, Joel Wolfe. That was eventually trimmed to three finalists – the Dodgers, Padres and Blue Jays. The Padres were seen as the Dodgers’ most significant competitor based on Sasaki’s close relationship with Yu Darvish.
Early on Friday, though, it was reported that the Padres were out of the running. The Blue Jays were always considered a long shot but did acquire $2 million in additional international signing bonus money in a trade before Sasaki announced his decision.