Yanks, Mets can both use the services of Japanese star Sasaki

The Mets, a win-now team if there ever was one after signing Juan Soto to a record contract earlier this month, could use a pitcher with the potential of Japanese star Roki Sasaki given the significant questions surrounding their 2025 rotation.

The Yankees, who feature a top-heavy rotation that has fewer questions, nonetheless have a just-as-strong desire as the Mets do to land Sasaki, 23.

Still, the overwhelming sense in the sport all season was that Sasaki ultimately would end up with the Dodgers, and the Padres would be a close second.

The recruitment of the righthander, which began when he was officially posted on Dec. 10, hasn’t changed that thinking.

Meanwhile, Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, did not coming close to tipping his hand in a news conference Monday night that contained little news.

That was by design.

“At Roki’s request,” Wolfe said, “[We] tried to keep the flow of information at a minimum.”

Wolfe, who expects Sasaki to make his decision between Jan. 15 and the Jan. 23 deadline, said 20 teams expressed an interest in the pitcher after he was posted. In the weeks since, Sasaki narrowed that field to teams he wanted to meet with in-person, the Yankees and Mets were among them. Wolfe didn’t specify which teams his client met with in-person, though the Dodgers, Padres, Rangers, Giants and Cubs are among the other teams reported to have received face-to-face time with Sasaki.

All of the in-person meetings, per Sasaki’s request as to have the process take place on “a fair and level playing field,” Wolfe said, were held to a two-hour time limit. They all occurred at the agent’s offices in Los Angeles.

“The next steps will be something in the neighborhood of possibility meeting with one or two additional teams or narrowing the field, which I think may be more likely,” Wolfe said of Sasaki, who recently returned to Japan. “And whether or not he wants to visit one or two cities as he finalizes the decision-making process.”

Dollars, unlike with the vast majority of free agents, will not be a major factor in that decision. Because Sasaki is younger than 25, he can only sign a minor-league contract under the 2025 international signing bonus pools. Team figures generally are in the range from $5.15 million to $7.55 million.

“He has a more long-term global view of things,” Wolfe said of Sasaki’s priorities. “I believe Roki is very interested in pitching development and how a team is going to help him get better, both in near future and over the course of his career. He didn’t seem overly concerned about whether a team had Japanese players on their team or not…that was never a topic of discussion.”

Speaking earlier in the call, Wolfe said of Sasaki’s reasoning for wanting to come to the majors at such a young age: “He is a guy that wants to be great. He’s not coming here just to be rich or [get] a huge contract. He wants to be great, one of the best ever.”

Both New York clubs have plenty to offer though, again, the prevailing opinion from executives and talent evaluators in baseball remain that Sasaki will end up on the West Coast.

The Mets, who already have one Japanese pitcher on their roster in Kodai Senga, also, of course, have the considerable wallet wielded by owner Steve Cohen.

“We’re certainly going to give it our best shot,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns, who went to Japan last September to watch Sasaki, said during the winter meetings. “Very difficult in these processes to truly understand what a player’s preference is…We’ll do our best. It’s certainly an attractive opportunity.”

Yankees GM Brian Cashman did not visit Japan this season but saw Sasaki, who helped lead Japan to the World Baseball Classic title in 2023, in person during a trip there in 2023 as part of the club’s preparation to woo Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who eventually signed with the Dodgers.

The defending World Series champions, in addition to having Yamamoto on their roster, also feature the sport’s biggest star in two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani. The Padres like their chances for multiple reasons, chief among those the presence of Yu Darvish, whom Sasaki greatly admires, on their roster.

Part of the Yankees’ presentation was, of course, their history of winning, as well as the success their franchise has had over the years with Japanese players such as Hideki Matsui, Hiroki Kuroda, Masahiro Tanaka and, briefly toward the end of his career, Ichiro Suzuki.

“There’s no better place to do it than in New York with the pinstripes,” manager Aaron Boone said earlier this month. “And I think we have a lot to offer him in not only his development, but I think it’s clear we’re talking about a potentially dominant major-league starting pitcher.”