Subtle trade deadline move might've added a Dodgers competitor for Roki Sasaki

Roki Sasaki, the 22-year-old Japanese pitching phenom, made headlines following a report that he had asked to be posted for MLB clubs this past offseason. While he ultimately remained with Nippon Professional Baseball’s Chiba Lotte Marines for the 2024 season, Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post reported in May that MLB clubs had begun “planning” for the possibility that Sasaki is posted during the 2024-25 offseason.

Neither Sasaki nor the NPB have confirmed whether he will indeed be posted this offseason, but MLB teams have already begun preparing. The Los Angeles Dodgers are one team with reported interest in Sasaki, because they wouldn't be the Dodgers if they weren't linked to every highly-touted free agent on the market.

However, the New York Yankees made a shrewd move at the trade deadline that could help strengthen their case in the Sasaki sweepstakes. In trading reliever Caleb Ferguson to the Houston Astros, the Yankees received right-handed pitching prospect Kelly Austin and $750,000 in international bonus pool money to give them a grand total of $1,483,200 in their international budget.

This is significant because, as a player under the age of 25, Sasaki would be considered an international amateur and can therefore only be offered a rookie contract in the majors, along with a signing bonus that comes out of the signing club’s international bonus pool. Thanks to these spending restrictions, the market for Sasaki's services this winter would feature a far more even financial playing field than would typically be expected for a free agent of his caliber.

Dodgers likely to face steep competition in bidding war for Roki Sasaki

If Sasaki is posted this winter, he will join a 2024-25 MLB free agent class expected to be deep in pitching talent. The Dodgers have been the presumed frontrunner to land Sasaki, though that appears to be nothing more than speculation at this point – perhaps because, up to this point, the only player to make the jump from NPB to MLB using the same posting method rather than arriving in the majors via the posting system or free agency is none other than Shohei Ohtani.

Ironically, however, Ohtani's place on the Dodgers' roster could be one of the things working against them in their potential pursuit of Sasaki. A team that exceeds the competitive balance tax loses $1 million from its bonus pool for signing a free agent who turned down the qualifying offer, so the Dodgers’ pool was reduced $1 million for signing the two-way superstar.

It's still unknown whether Sasaki will be posted this winter, and it’s extremely rare for a player to take that avenue to reach MLB. If Lotte does decide to make him available, though, the Dodgers figure to have some serious competition in signing him.

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