What We Heard About Roki Sasaki at MLB Winter Meetings

DALLAS — Make no mistake about it … Roki Sasaki is a hot commodity at the 2024 MLB Winter Meetings. The crowd gathered around his agent, Joel Wolfe, on Monday was a testament to how much interest the 23-year-old right-hander from Japan is generating.

Forced onto the main stage inside the press workroom at the Hilton Anatole, Wolfe was open and candid during his nearly 30-minute discussion on Sasaki and what the next few weeks might hold for him. I had a front row seat for the discussion, and found what he said about the bonus pool money that teams will use to sign Sasaki to a minor-league deal among the many fascinating things said.

Roki Sasaki agent Joel Wolfe discussing bonus pool money and his advice to his client on it at #MLBWinterMeetings pic.twitter.com/cro2buw3C4

— Kevin Henry (@kgh23) December 10, 2024

So what else was said during Wolfe’s talk? Here are five quotes that stood out to me, as well as some context around them.

Note: For an in-depth look at Sasaki and what makes him so special, check out this piece from Just Baseball’s Aram Leighton.

“He hasn’t said anything negative about any particular city, and he actually hasn’t said anything overly positive about it. We haven’t had any detailed discussions about, you know, particular cities yet, so I but I think he could handle it just based on what I’ve seen.”

Reporters on Monday were obviously trying to get a sense of where Sasaki might be leaning early on in the discussion, but Wolfe wouldn’t budge with that kind of information.

There have been plenty of talking points about Sasaki preferring perhaps to stay on the West Coast than head to New York or another East Coast destination.

However, when asked if Sasaki could handle New York and the media spotlight that would fall on him there, the above is what Wolfe said. He believes his client won’t be shaken by any media market, no matter how big it might be. That gives hope to New York, Philadelphia, Boston and other potential East Coast destinations.

“I think that there’s an argument to be made that a smaller mid-market team might be more beneficial for him as a soft landing coming from Japan, given what he’s been through.”

What he’s “been through,” according to Wolfe is an onslaught of negative media from Japanese-based media for heading to MLB at the age of 23 rather than waiting a couple of years until he turns 25 and can become a free agent in the same way that Yoshinobu Yamamoto and other Japanese players have done in recent years.

Here’s what Wolfe said about that, “There’s been a lot of negativity in the media directed at him because he has expressed interest in going to play for MLB at such a young age, and that’s considered in Japan to be very disrespectful and sort of swimming upstream.

And there’s been a lot of things, you know, a lot of people jumped on board there, creating false rumors about him and his family, and was very detrimental to his mental state.”

So while New York or Los Angeles may make sense from a “winning standpoint,” could a smaller location like San Diego (where he has been linked to on several occasions because of his relationship with Yu Darvish) actually have an edge?

“There are no absolutes in baseball. And through Roki’s eyes, there are no absolutes in life. And through Roki Sasaki’s eyes, and if you look at some of the things that have happened in his life, some of the tragedies that have happened in his life, he does not take anything for granted.

It is not an absolute lock, as some people in baseball have assumed that two years from now he’s going to get a money contract. Baseball just doesn’t work that way.”

According to an Instagram post from MLB on Fox, “When Roki Sasaki was 9 years old, he lost his father, his grandparents, and his home during the horrible earthquake and Tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011.

“On that day 12 years later, he made his WBC debut for Team Japan in front of 64 MLB scouts and executives.”

There are moments in life that define all of us, and it’s clear that this was a moment that still pushes Sasaki and his mindset today. It helps define why he is making this move now and why he wants to be a part of an MLB team sooner than later.

“I think that he hasn’t really wrapped his head around the individual teams and the individual cities, and he just really doesn’t know much about that. Most of the Japanese players don’t, because they don’t get the opportunity to come here. He was here for a very small amount of time because he was fortunate enough to play in the WBC, but that was a very small glimpse for him.”

For those rumors that say Sasaki has already locked into a certain team or city for his contract, Wolfe was very clear that those rumors weren’t true. This will be a learning process for Sasaki as he weighs the surf of San Diego versus the hustle and bustle of the Bronx or Queens.

If you’re only looking at WBC exposure for Sasaki this year, that would be Miami, where Team Japan won the WBC after advancing through pool play and the quarterfinals in Tokyo. Marlins fans, read into that what you will.

American geography lessons will likely become a big part of Sasaki’s life in the very near future.

“I think it could be, it could be to have an older player to help him, you know, show him the ropes. But anyone that knows Roki Sasaki, this is one of the most driven, intense players I’d ever known and been around, incredibly hard working, and I wouldn’t say that he would necessarily need it to succeed. I think he’ll be just fine wherever he goes, whether he has a Japanese senpai or not.”

By the way, senpai is a Japanese term that refers to a mentor or upperclassman who guides an underclassman. In this case, it could refer to someone like Kodai Senga, Yamamoto, Ohtani or Darvish, a Japanese pitcher who could show Sasaki “the ropes,” as Wolfe said.

However, Wolfe was very clear that he considers Sasaki to be his own person and to be someone who listens to others, but makes his own decisions. While plenty have pinned hopes on a Japanese player already on the roster being a plus in attracting Sasaki, Wolfe didn’t downplay the possibility of Sasaki being someone who would like to blaze his own trail with a franchise.

So what’s the bottom line? There will be plenty of rumors and possibilities flying around between now and January 23 (when Sasaki’s posting window closes), but we will likely not have any kind of firm answer until potentially the week before that, according to Wolfe.