The Mets had a meeting with them Roki Sasaki on Thursday, SNY’s Andy Martino reports. They are the second group to be publicly revealed to be dating the NPB star. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told reporters (including MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch) on Wednesday that Sasaki had scheduled an in-person meeting with the team. It is not clear when that will happen.
Almost every team would love to get Sasaki. It stands to reason that most, if not all, clubs have at least prepared a platform for the 23-year-old righty. Sasaki and his representatives at Wasserman may not intend to meet with all parties in the next few weeks.
Agent Joel Wolfe spoke to the media (including MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes and Steve Adams) at the Winter Meetings. Wolfe revealed that Sasaki will speak to the teams in person in the central United States throughout the week. He is scheduled to return to Japan for the holidays but may return to the US to tour the cities that will play in the finals after that.
This is only the first set of presentations. Many people consider the Dodgers or (to a lesser extent) the Padres as the favorites, although Wolfe strongly denied last month that any kind of handshake deal with Los Angeles was already in place. Wolfe suggested at the Winter Meetings that Sasaki would benefit from coming to a city without a large media presence, though he stressed that was only his opinion and that he and Sasaki had yet to discuss that in more detail.
Sasaki’s posting window opened on December 9. He is due to sign with an MLB team on January 23 but won’t be able to sign until after next year’s international rookie season opens on January 15. However, he could reach an unofficial verbal agreement before that point. Sasaki’s bonus will be severely limited by MLB’s rookie signing limits.
Teams can earn up to 60% of their bonus share by trading. That trade cannot begin until the 15th. Sasaki’s maximum potential bonus would be $12.0888MM. He’ll likely sign for less than that, as he’ll need a team with the highest starting pool (one of Milwaukee, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Minnesota, Miami, Cincinnati, Detroit, or the Athletics) to trade up for a high and commit their entire pool to Sasaki. The Yankees and Mets each have $6.2616MM each in their first base. If they trade for 60% more land, they will be able to offer over $10MM.
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