Roki Sasaki’s ‘Unspecified Homework Assignment’ For Dodgers, Other Teams Revealed
The whirlwind offseason surrounding the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes was won by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Friday, Sasaki announced on his Instagram account that he will be signing with the Dodgers as he picked L.A. over the San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays.
It was an unprecedented offseason for a player with talent not seen in MLB in a long time.
For a player as young as Sasaki, plus the talent he already possesses, and the humility to understand how much more growth he still needs to further develop is a rare combination.
This was also a rare combination of factors that led to the 23-year-old putting the baseball world in a frenzy. Due to his age, he was limitted to each MLB team’s international bonus pool.
Since he was not yet 25 and had less than six years of service time in the Nippon Professional Baseball league, Sasaki could only sign a minor league contract, using the international bonus pool money as his signing bonus.
The Dodgers, that had the league’s lowest possible amount of international bonus pool money, were at a disadvantage. Obviously, it worked out for them, but even after clearing just over $1 million in pool money, they were still in a place to offer less than Toronto and — before being ruled out of contention — San Diego.
Another wrinkle in the Sasaki saga was the ‘unspecified homework assignment’ Sasaki and his agent, Joel Wolfe, assigned to interested teams.
Wolfe explained that “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.”
After one of the most mind-boggling offseasons in recent memory, the homework assignment was revealed.
All teams were required, “to diagnose why his fastball velocity dropped last season in Japan, and to outline their plan to ensure it never happens again.”
This showed teams, per ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez, “that he’s confident, but also self-aware. That he’s a long-term thinker. And that though he recognizes he can get better.
“He’s hell-bent on being great.”
Sasaki, and Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman believe that he can be not just great, but the greatest in the world.
“He has talked about his desire to be the best pitcher in the world,” Friedman said at the Winter Meetings, “and we believe he’s capable of being the best pitcher in the world.”
The newest addition to the Dodgers rotation sported a 2.35 ERA last season with 129 strikeouts to only 32 walks.
Photo Credit: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports
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