Jump to content
Jays Centre
  • Create Account

Article: The Blue Jays Met With Roki Sasaki in Toronto

Davy Andrews

By Davy Andrews
in Jays Centre Front Page News

 Share

Recommended Posts

Davy Andrews Draft Eligible

Davy Andrews

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

Let's get excited! Well, not too excited. Let's get very cautiously, ever so slightly, petrified-to-our-very-cores optimistic!

So right off the bat, let’s set our excitement meters to about 10%. We’re not going to lose our minds here. We know how this goes. The Blue Jays have a meeting with a top free agent, the top free agent signs elsewhere, and the Blue Jays tell reporters they were just grateful to be part of the process. We all remember Shohei Ohtani visiting the Dunedin spring training complex, and we all remember his phantom flight to Toronto. We’re not trying to set ourselves up for heartbreak here. That said, let’s crank it up to 10% excitement! According to Ken Rosenthal and Andy McCullough of The Athletic, Japanese ace Roki Sasaki met with the Blue Jays in Toronto last week. Previous reporting had indicated that of the 20 teams that made presentations to Sasaki and his agent, Joel Wolfe, only seven would get to meet with him: the Cubs, Dodgers, Giants, Mets, Padres, Rangers, and Yankees. The Red Sox reportedly couldn’t get a meeting with Sasaki. Even if it leads nowhere, as it probably will, this is still allowed to be exciting news.

We previously noted that the Jays were reportedly "all-in" on Sasaki. I’m not going to get into the weeds about how adding Sasaki would affect the roster. Suffice it to say that he’s one of the best pitchers in the world and there’s no such thing as a starting rotation that wouldn’t be much better with him on it. The 23-year-old has a career 2.10 ERA in NPB while striking out more than 10 batters per nine innings. His fastball velocity ticked down a bit in 2024, but it still averaged a hair under 97 mph, and his trademark splitter ran a comical 57% whiff rate. Those kinds of numbers will play anywhere.

Like Ohtani, Sasaki is so determined to challenge himself against the best the world has to offer that he’s entering the posting system early, before he reaches nine years of professional experience. That means instead of signing a free agent contract for the hundreds of millions of dollars that he’s actually worth, he’ll be on a rookie contract, with a signing bonus of whatever his chosen team has available in their international free agent bonus pool, likely around $7 million. (The Blue Jays are actually  toward the very bottom, with just under $6.3 million available in their bonus pool.) It’s an enormous bet on himself, and it also means that every team is on roughly the same financial footing, so money won’t be a factor. Sasaki will have his own reasons for his decision.

The smart money is still on the Dodgers. Even the byline of this report tells you that. Ken Rosenthal and Andy McCullough are both national writers, but McCullough wrote for the Los Angeles Times until 2019, was a Dodgers beat writer until 2018, recently wrote a book about Clayton Kershaw. However, the small possibility of landing one of the game’s best arms for the next six seasons is an excellent reason to get just a little bit excited.


View full article

BB17 Draft Eligible

BB17

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

As nice as this stuff is to hear I don't think anyone is getting their hopes up on this one. We've been down this road a few times now. I'll only believe it if the signing is completed.

In this situation at least you can't say the Jays are just being used as leverage to drive the price up since there's a max he can sign for.

Jays24 New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Jays24

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

So basically it's down to the teams everyone assumed from the start, SD/LAD.  Once those 2 teams are announced out then I'll get my hopes up

Spanky99 GOAT

Spanky99

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

So basically it's down to the teams everyone assumed from the start, SD/LAL.  Once those 2 teams are announced out then I'll get my hopes up

Lakers don't play baseball? 🤪

Jays24 New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Jays24

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Spanky99 said:

Lakers don't play baseball? 🤪

Damn... just got exposed as a phoney, can never take out my nba first mentality lol.

BB17 Draft Eligible

BB17

Verified Member
Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Vladdywagon said:

Our strong defense should be alluring to pitchers that are looking to build value for a huge contract down the road.  That should be a plus for Sasaki.  If he were to come here and put up excellent numbers with the help of our defense he could turn that into a massive next contract.  

That being said I'm not going to get excited until I see the press conference

If he cared about money he'd probably just wait 2-3 years and then sign when there is no restrictions.

My guess is the Jays are centering their presentation around how they've had SP at the major league level have success over the last few years. And maybe how Toronto would be a good spot for marketing purposes as the number 1 guy on the team. If he was a Dodger he'd be in Ohtani and Yam's shadow.

Vancouverite College Ball

Vancouverite

Verified Member
Posted
Posted
51 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

 

I just checked the Dodgers SP depth chart thinking "why would he want to go there, they're stacked no guarantee he'll get playing time" but, man do the Dodgers ever have fire power in SP department but, so many question marks.

Snell and Glasnow are their #1 #2 but have had nothing but injury problems but Snell averages 120 innings per season and Glasnow's 130 IP last year was a career high.

Yanomoto their #3 has 90 career IP

Ohtani, Gonsolin and May who is their #4, 5, 6 all haven't pitched since 2023.

I think Sasaki is prioritizing opportunity equally to preferred city. I hope this somehow plays in our favour as out of the 4 teams picking the Jays would probably present him with the easiest path with an opportunity for 25-30 starts in 2025 if that's what he wants. 

glory Vancouver Canadians

glory

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

The one positive here is that Sasaki doesn't need to keep teams in the hunt for leverage. It's international bonus money. The difference in money is going to be irrelevant. So the Jays must have impressed him at least a little bit to be a finalist. I know fans rag on the Jays for coming close on top FAs but the fact that they keep getting to this point is at least more fun (if not gut wrenching depending on what your expectations are) than what we've been accustomed to in previous years. 

With that said, if he doesn't choose Toronto then I hope he goes to the Padres, but I think we all know what the end result is going to be. 

Carlos Danger Dunedin Blue Jays

Carlos Danger

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

If you were on the Bachelor and there were 5 girls remaining that you had to go on hometown dates with before the elimination rose ceremony. 

 

Would go on a date with the girl you like the most, first, last or in the middle??

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
The Jays Centre Caretaker Fund
The Jays Centre Caretaker Fund

You all care about this site. The next step is caring for it. We’re asking you to caretake this site so it can remain the premier Blue Jays community on the internet.

Become a Caretaker

  • Member Statistics

    20,996
    Total Members
    48,845
    Most Online
    ButchS
    Newest Member
    ButchS
    Joined
×
×
  • Create New...