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His amateur classification means he can sign only a minor league contract, with his bonus coming from his signing team’s international bonus pool. The current system doesn’t offer the Marines much of an incentive to post Sasaki before he turns 25. While highly rated Kodai Senga is expected to move to the United States this winter with Yoshinobu Yamamoto believed to be following him a year later, major league teams already have their eyes set on Sasaki. The greater concern is over how he will eventually reach the major leagues. He dominates over there because he’s overpowering with the fastball. “My concern with him is that it’s predominantly fastball-split right now,” said the evaluator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because his team prohibits him from sharing his observations. One major league talent evaluator who recently watched Sasaki was more reserved in his praise. The early-season performances prompted one high-ranking major league official to compare Sasaki’s fastball to Jacob deGrom’s and declare that Sasaki was already one of the five best pitchers in the world. With the score tied 0-0, Sasaki was removed from the game by his manager, former major leaguer Tadahito Iguchi. In his next start, he pitched eight more perfect innings against the Nippon-Ham Fighters. His 19 strikeouts were tied for the most in league history. Sasaki struck out an NPB-record 13 consecutive batters during the perfect game against the Orix Buffaloes in his third start. This year, he’s transformed into the league’s best pitcher, going 6-1 with a 1.48 earned-run average through his first 13 starts. By the time they reached the postseason, he was the Marines’ Game 1 starter. Last year, as a 19-year-old, Sasaki was immediately effective. The Marines said they were focused on building his physique. Sasaki, who experienced arm trouble in high school, mysteriously didn’t pitch in an NPB or minor league game in his first year as a professional.

Shohei Ohtani gave up one unearned run in seven dominant innings and had the go-ahead hit in the Angels’ 5-2 victory over the Miami Marlins on Wednesday. Four teams selected him in the first round of the 2019 NPB draft, with the Marines awarded his rights via a lottery.Īngels Shohei Ohtani dominant on mound as Angels beat Marlins

In high school, he broke Ohtani’s national high school velocity record by throwing a fastball clocked at 163 km/h, or 101.3 mph. Sasaki lost his father and paternal grandparents in the tsunami that ravaged the northern part of Japan’s mainland in 2011. He is from Iwate, the same rural prefecture that was also the birthplace of Ohtani and Yusei Kikuchi of the Toronto Blue Jays. Sasaki, whose first name is pronounced Row-key, has been nationally famous in Japan from the time he was in high school. You would think that after what Ohtani has accomplished here and overseas, it would do whatever is necessary to open its doors for a player as talented and popular as Sasaki. You would think the league would want to make it easier for elite players to come here, not harder. Major League Baseball is Major League Baseball because it has the world’s best players. Ohtani signed with the Angels for only $2.3 million before the 2018 season but was able to pick his destination.įor what it’s worth, the league is open to negotiating with the players’ union new thresholds that would make players draft-exempt, a person familiar with MLB’s thinking told The Times’ Jorge Castillo. The assumption is that Sasaki or any other NPB player in his position would be less likely to make the financial sacrifices necessary to expedite his move to the major leagues if he couldn’t select his team. “That would be a bummer,” an executive of a National League team said. In addition to limiting their earning power, the designation would subject them to the international draft. Under the MLB’s current proposal, NPB players under age 25 with less than six years of service time would still be classified as amateurs.