Cubs Meeting With Japanese Ace Roki Sasaki

[Brock Beauchamp]

Bruce Levine tweeted the Cubs are meeting with Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki.

Sasaki is going to be pursued by nearly every team in baseball (probably not the Rockies because, you know, it's the Rockies). Sasaki is not the typical Japanese player posting; like Shohei Ohtani, special rules apply to his posting and he is limited to signing a contract within a team's international signing budget allotment. He will then be subject to six years of team control, becoming arbitration-eligible after three seasons like any other "typical" prospect.

Sasaki will play his age-23 season in 2025. In Japan, he has a career 2.02 ERA in 414 innings pitched. The young Japanese hurler is represented by Joel Wolfe, the man who also represents Seiya Suzuki.

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[We Got The Whole 9]

Does anyone really think he's gonna make his decision based on 8M vs 6M? I tend to lean no. He wants the cleanest and most impactful pitch.

[Bertz]

37 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Does anyone really think he's gonna make his decision based on 8M vs 6M? I tend to lean no. He wants the cleanest and most impactful pitch.

No.  He's going to demand a team's full bonus pool because it's the least they can do, but he's going to make his decision off of soft factors.  He knows he'll get paid primarily via endorsements the first few years over here.

[Bertz]

Wow, I kind of assumed that every team short of like the Rockies and White Sox were going to get a meeting with him and then the real contenders would get a second.  The Phillies are a good team in a good city with great pitching dev.  If they didn't even make the first cut that says something.

 

[WhyCantWeWin]

4 hours ago, Bertz said:

Wow, I kind of assumed that every team short of like the Rockies and White Sox were going to get a meeting with him and then the real contenders would get a second.  The Phillies are a good team in a good city with great pitching dev.  If they didn't even make the first cut that says something.

 

Wolfe mentioned how the media messed with Sasaki’s psyche. He probably wants nothing to do with the media in philly. 

[Ding Dong Johnson]

7 hours ago, Bertz said:

Phillies are … in a good city

[Tank]

I have been an optimist from the start here. Still feeling really good about landing Sasaki. 

[NorthsideAvenger]

4 hours ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Wolfe mentioned how the media messed with Sasaki’s psyche. He probably wants nothing to do with the media in philly. 

If that is true, would that not eliminate New York from the conversation?

[JD94]

As much as I’ve pushed back on this FO, I do have extreme confidence that they nailed this meeting and will nail the whole process. They are extremely good at these type of things. 
 

I need Roki like I need air. That guy is freaking electric. 

[BigbadB]

2 hours ago, JD94 said:

As much as I’ve pushed back on this FO, I do have extreme confidence that they nailed this meeting and will nail the whole process. They are extremely good at these type of things. 
 

I need Roki like I need air. That guy is freaking electric. 

If the meeting takes place at the best Chicago thin crust pizza places in town, it should be an easy walk across the finish line.

[Cuzi]

1 hour ago, BigbadB said:

If the meeting takes place at the best Chicago thin crust pizza places in town, it should be an easy walk across the finish line.

Fairly certain all of the meetings with Roki are happening in LA.

[WhyCantWeWin]

11 hours ago, NorthsideAvenger said:

If that is true, would that not eliminate New York from the conversation?

Could be true, but he did meet with the mets i believe. Could be some other reason hes not fond of philly

[sweetpeteman]

On 12/20/2024 at 6:05 PM, Bertz said:

Wow, I kind of assumed that every team short of like the Rockies and White Sox were going to get a meeting with him and then the real contenders would get a second.  The Phillies are a good team in a good city with great pitching dev.  If they didn't even make the first cut that says something.

 

 

 

[ILMindState]

Iguchi was his manager in Japan. He probably just took the meeting out of respect. 

[thawv]

On 12/20/2024 at 6:05 PM, Bertz said:

Wow, I kind of assumed that every team short of like the Rockies and White Sox were going to get a meeting with him and then the real contenders would get a second.  The Phillies are a good team in a good city with great pitching dev.  If they didn't even make the first cut that says something.

 

I assume that he's always had a list of 6-8 teams he's interested in.  I can't imagine him wasting his time and a team's time if it's not a city he wants to play in, or a franchise he wants to play for.   I'm assuming there won't be any small market teams he gives permission to talk to either.

[thawv]

On 12/21/2024 at 10:27 AM, JD94 said:

As much as I’ve pushed back on this FO, I do have extreme confidence that they nailed this meeting and will nail the whole process. They are extremely good at these type of things. 
 

I need Roki like I need air. That guy is freaking electric. 

Very nicely said!

[Rcal10]

16 minutes ago, thawv said:

I assume that he's always had a list of 6-8 teams he's interested in.  I can't imagine him wasting his time and a team's time if it's not a city he wants to play in, or a franchise he wants to play for.   I'm assuming there won't be any small market teams he gives permission to talk to either.

I would agree with no small markets, however, didn’t his agent say he liked small markets? Sometimes things get messed up in translation, so maybe he didn’t say that. I think the Cubs have a chance if he doesn’t go to LA. But to me LA is the heavy favorite 

Edited December 22, 2024 by Rcal10

[thawv]

24 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

I would agree with no small markets, however, didn’t his agent say he liked small markets? Sometimes things get messed up in translation, so maybe he didn’t say that. I think the Cubs have a chance if he doesn’t go to LA. But to me LA is the heavy favorite 

His agent said that he thought Roki would consider a smaller market, but did not confirm it with him.

I hate that all the meetings are in LA.  It's a huge advantage for the Dodgers, if it's a legit interview with the other teams, and not just a dog and pony show.  I think if he picks the Dodgers, this whole thing was just for show.

I'm hoping that if he doesn't want to play with his idol in SD, Yu points him in our direction like he did with Suzuki!!

[gflore34]

20 hours ago, thawv said:

His agent said that he thought Roki would consider a smaller market, but did not confirm it with him.

I hate that all the meetings are in LA.  It's a huge advantage for the Dodgers, if it's a legit interview with the other teams, and not just a dog and pony show.  I think if he picks the Dodgers, this whole thing was just for show.

I'm hoping that if he doesn't want to play with his idol in SD, Yu points him in our direction like he did with Suzuki!!

I believe this is the case, just like Ohtani' "interest" in the Blue Jays, just to say they did their due diligence.  But everyone knows the fix is in.

[thawv]

1 hour ago, gflore34 said:

I believe this is the case, just like Ohtani' "interest" in the Blue Jays, just to say they did their due diligence.  But everyone knows the fix is in.

If it plays out that way, the whole system is a joke. 

[Stratos]

On 12/20/2024 at 5:47 PM, Bertz said:

No.  He's going to demand a team's full bonus pool because it's the least they can do, but he's going to make his decision off of soft factors.  He knows he'll get paid primarily via endorsements the first few years over here.

Good point, so that means the city market for his endorsements will also be a factor.  LA might even have too many stars and star pitchers to have the most impact for him.  New York or Chicago would make more sense there.

I feel like we have about a 1 in 6 or so chance to land him.

[Backtobanks]

17 hours ago, gflore34 said:

I believe this is the case, just like Ohtani' "interest" in the Blue Jays, just to say they did their due diligence.  But everyone knows the fix is in.

Why would "the fix" be in?  Ohtani liked Southern California, the Dodgers are a. great organization (with a long history of winning), Los Angeles has a lot of endorsement opportunities, and the Dodgers made the best offer.  

[BigbadB]

It would be like rounding up 30 kids for a game of kickball, and the rules are one team gets to pick the first 15 players to be on their team and the other team gets what's leftover, including the kid in the corner picking his nose.

The rules allow for the Dodgers to stockpile as many great players as they can, so it's not against the rules. But, it will have lasting effect on all the other team's fans that lose interest in the sport. But, it will be one step closer to changing the rules so that this cannot continue happening. Not even sure how they go about changing it since the Dodgers are deferring huge piles of money so many years out, so there might have to be grandfathered protections in place, which will also suck for a lot of other teams. That, or you punish the Dodgers for what they've done, and can just point and laugh that they thought what they were doing would not have repercussions.

[Backtobanks]

1 hour ago, BigbadB said:

It would be like rounding up 30 kids for a game of kickball, and the rules are one team gets to pick the first 15 players to be on their team and the other team gets what's leftover, including the kid in the corner picking his nose.

The rules allow for the Dodgers to stockpile as many great players as they can, so it's not against the rules. But, it will have lasting effect on all the other team's fans that lose interest in the sport. But, it will be one step closer to changing the rules so that this cannot continue happening. Not even sure how they go about changing it since the Dodgers are deferring huge piles of money so many years out, so there might have to be grandfathered protections in place, which will also suck for a lot of other teams. That, or you punish the Dodgers for what they've done, and can just point and laugh that they thought what they were doing would not have repercussions.

Teams like the Dodgers and the Yankees spend money like it's going out of style, but all teams make an obscene amount of money on TV rights, merchandising, tax write-offs, etc. before the season starts.  Obviously, the big market teams have an advantage, but nobody is losing money.  Ricketts investment has at least quadrupled since he bought it, 

[BigbadB]

10 minutes ago, Backtobanks said:

Teams like the Dodgers and the Yankees spend money like it's going out of style, but all teams make an obscene amount of money on TV rights, merchandising, tax write-offs, etc. before the season starts.  Obviously, the big market teams have an advantage, but nobody is losing money.  Ricketts investment has at least quadrupled since he bought it, 

You aren't telling me anything I don't already know. The problem is the big market teams continue spreading the difference further away from the others, which will hurt the overall product as people stop being interested.