The New York Yankees find themselves back in a tight battle with their crosstown rivals for a top free-agent once again.
The Yankees met with Japanese ace Roki Sasaki on Dec. 19, the same day the New York Mets sat down with the flame-throwing right-hander, New York Post columnist Jon Heyman reported.
“Both New York clubs visited Los Angeles on Thursday and made their pitches for the young, star Japanese righty,” Heyman reported.
The 23-year-old free agent was also set to meet with the Chicago Cubs the next day, according to a report from 670 The Score. The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres are seen as front-runners for Sasaki.
Sasaki is a front-of-the-rotation arm with elite stuff who throws a lot of strikes. Over his career in Japan, Sasaki is 29-15 with a 2.10 ERA in four seasons in which he has been limited by injuries. He’s averaged just two walks per nine innings and struck out 32.4% of the batters he has faced. He also keeps the ball in the ballpark, allowing just 16 home runs over 414 innings pitched.
Helping Japan win the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Sasaki’s fastball touched 102.5 miles per hour
With Sasaki being just 23 years old, he must be signed under MLB’s international bonus pool rules. Those are the same rules that are usually used to regulate the signing of 16-year-old players from Latin America. Japanese stars usually wait until they are 25 so they are exempt from those rules and can maximize their free-agent money.
That means the allotted money that any team can pay Sasaki is around $7.5 million and it eliminates any financial edge for the Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, or any team.
Also, Sasaki’s agent Joel Wolf made comments at the Winter Meetings that the best fit might be a smaller market with less media attention.