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Roki Sasaki (Photo by Mary DeCicco/WBCI/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported Saturday that Japanese righthander Roki Sasaki will be posted next week during the 2024 Baseball Winter Meetings.
While that would technically allow Sasaki to sign before the current international signing period ends on Dec. 15, it would more importantly allow him to sign in the next international signing period, which begins Jan. 15.
That means that all 30 MLB teams’ international bonus pool allotments will be reset, ensuring the largest bonus possible for Sasaki. His current team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, will receive a posting fee of 20% of the signing bonus.
Sasaki will have 45 days to reach an agreement after he is officially posted. He can negotiate throughout those 45 days, but because of the allowed signing windows, once Dec. 16 arrives, he cannot officially sign until Jan. 15 when the 2025 international amateur signing period begins.
Because he will wait until the 2025 signing period, Sasaki’s negotiations will likely throw some teams’ 2025 international plans into turmoil, as Ben Badler has laid out here at Baseball America. Badler has also written about the seven teams most likely to sign Sasaki.
Sasaki is considered one of the best young pitchers in the world, and will set off a frenzy of activity. Whichever MLB team lands him will be getting a potential front-of-the-rotation starter at a fraction of his cost on the free market. Because he does not meet the standards to be a “foreign professional” he will be limited to signing a MiLB contract with a signing bonus. Teams can make the case for why Sasaki should choose them, but the rules about trying to get around those bonus and contract restrictions are quite strict.
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