Dodgers Lose Third International Signee as LA Clears Space for Roki Sasaki
The offseason of Roki Sasaki has been unlike any other.
The 23-year-old phenom is already affecting MLB rosters despite not even being on one of his own yet.
There has been recent developments in the Sasaki story as he narrowed down his list of interested teams to three: The Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, and Toronto Blue Jays.
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There are a few factors as to what makes this decision so unprecedented — the first of which is the unspecified homework assignment.
Days before eliminating would-be landing spots for the right-hander, Sasaki gave a homework assignment to potential teams, according to his agent Joel Worlfe.
“Without giving the actual details of what that assignment was,” Wolfe said, “every team got that very same assignment, and it enabled them to show how they can analyze and communicate information with him, and really showed where he was coming from in analyzing and creating his selection criteria, in looking at different teams.”
Another reason for the unusual offseason pursuit is the international bonus pool.
Since Sasaki is not yet 25 years old, he is restricted to only be signed through a team’s international bonus pool. Each team contains between $5.1 million and $7.5 million in their pool to use on all international prospects under 25.
This is where things get tricky.
The Dodgers are tied with the now-eliminated-from-Sasaki-contention San Francisco Giants for the smallest international bonus pool at roughly $5.1 million.
Los Angeles recently told their 2025 international signees to wait a year until signing with the team, likely to use as much money of their pool as possible on Sasaki.
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L.A. is not the only team to have done this as the Padres also reportedly informed their would-be 2025 class to wait another year as they also want to offer Sasaki as much as they can. An experienced international evaluator told The Athletic that “it could get crazy” with prospects not signing with the teams they planned on going to.
The Dodgers have lost not one, not two, but now a third international signee due to Sasaki.
Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs reported that infielder Teilon Serrano rescinded his agreement with L.A. and is headed to the Minnesota Twins.
Serrano, a 16-year-old, was ranked No. 50 on the MiLB top 100 international prospect list. Sasaki remains atop this list and clearly the top of the Dodgers’ priority list, as well.
Sasaki has proven that he is worth the entire bonus pool the Dodgers have to offer boasting four productive seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball.
The phenom has a career ERA of 2.10 in NPB with 505 strikeouts and only 88 walks across 394.2 innings.
Photo Credit: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports
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