Before the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball officially sent the right-hander Roki Sasaki in the major league clubs last month, Major League Baseball conducted an investigation before approving Sasaki’s shipment. Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times reported this afternoon that MLB’s investigation was aimed at “ensuring that protocol agreement is followed” and involved discussions with multiple organizations. A report from Fabian Ardaya, Dennis Lin, Patrick Mooney, Ken Rosenthal, and Will Sammon of The Athletic added more details this evening, noting that the focus of the league’s investigation was not Sasaki himself but rather the Marines. Both reports emphasize that the unit has found nothing to substantiate the rumors that there is any illegal arrangement taking place.
That the division’s investigation is focused on the Marines may seem surprising, but The Athletic’s report notes that the current posting system limits the Marines’ pay to just 25% of Sasaki’s total bonus. That is a weak financial incentive for a club to part with its star player and not only represents a retreat from major players in transfer fees such as Yoshinobu Yamamoto again Seiya Suzuki in recent years they have found their clubs but also the $20MM posting fee that the Nippon Ham Fighters were able to charge for Ohtani’s services when he signed with the Angels as an international player under the previous trade plan back in December 2017. That relative lack of compensation for services fees of Sasaki raised concerns among department officials about the potential for under-the-table payments.
While the MLB investigation found no wrongdoing by either team, speculation about the game that there might have been a handshake agreement between Sasaki and the Dodgers grew significantly to find a strong denial from agent Joel Wolfe of Wasserman, who represents the right-handed deal. As explained in a report by The Athletic, clubs around the sport felt uncertain about Sasaki’s intentions during his transfer process as teams like the Mariners and Red Sox failed to get a meeting with the 23-year-old player while big market teams like the Cubs, Yankees, and Mets did despite offers he may choose to avoid the limelight.
Regardless of that confusion, earlier this week it became clear that Sasaki had narrowed things down to three winners: the Dodgers, Padres, and Blue Jays, each of whom visited Sasaki in their cities and began preparing their offers. According to a report by The Athletic, San Diego told Sasaki’s camp that they would agree to a trade to increase their bonus pool and give Sasaki all of that money while the Dodgers plan to trade with the Phillies to add more bonus money if possible. that they came to Sasaki. The Blue Jays were particularly aggressive in their pursuit of Sasaki, however.
While all three clubs were clearly willing to add significant dollars to the pool to acquire Sasaki, Toronto received $2MM in international bonus space from the Guardians by taking on most of the money owed to the midfielder. Myles Straw for the next two years despite the fact that we do not have an agreement with the right-hander. The momentum of that trade didn’t work out in Toronto as Sasaki ended up choosing Los Angeles. Despite that, The Athletic’s report indicates that the Blue Jays believe Straw could be a valuable addition in his own right and that the money they’re taking to acquire him won’t be huge as they continue to look for ways to improve their roster. Notably, a center fielder Daulton Varsho is not expected to be ready for Opening Day and the addition of Straw could give the club depth at the position while Varsho recovers.
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