Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki has started talking to teams about where he'll sign once he's eligible on January 15. So far, the Red Sox haven't been part of the conversation.
According to reports, Sasaki has already met with the Mets, Yankees, Cubs, Rangers and most likely, the Giants, while the Dodgers and Padres -- seen through the industry as the two major favorites to land the 23-year-old righty -- will surely have sit-downs if they haven't already. But as Boston chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told The Boston Globe earlier this week, the Sox have not been invited to the negotiating table with Sasaki and do not have a meeting scheduled.
That doesn't necessarily mean Boston is out. According to a source with knowledge of the process, Sasaki informed teams earlier this month that he may meet with additional teams (ones that don't get December meetings) in January. There's no hard and fast date at which he's planning on eliminating potential contenders. That strategy will allow him to circle back and add teams to the mix at any point. The initial list of suitors is just that: initial. Still, it's not a good sign for the Red Sox that they're not part of the first round of meetings, especially after Breslow and a team of officials made a special scouting trip to watch Sasaki pitch in Japan earlier this year.
Teams like the Red Sox or Phillies -- who according to Dave Dombrowski, have also not been invited to the negotiating table -- should be discouraged by the fact other teams are getting early chances to pitch themselves to Sasaki. As a reminder, money isn't a major factor in these negotiations -- because Sasaki is under 25, he's subject to international bonus pool restrictions, meaning teams have a maximum of $5.15 million and $7.56 million to offer him as a signing bonus -- so a bidding war isn't about to break out. It's really more like a pre-NIL era college recruiting mission for teams who are interested; clubs will have to sell Sasaki on their organizations and the opportunities they can give him.
With the Red Sox, it's not a lack of interest from the team-side, as Breslow and a team of officials are ready and willing to travel to southern California to meet with Sasaki and his representatives at Wasserman just like they were when they traveled to Newport Beach to sit down with Juan Soto in November (albeit under much different financial circumstances). And Boston, like many other potential Sasaki suitors, does have some unique factors to offer -- including past success from Japanese pitchers like Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima, Junichi Tazaw, Koji Uehara and others. It's something Breslow planned to pitch Sasaki on.
"We have a long history of success in making a smooth transition and creating an environment where....Japanese pitchers can thrive," Breslow said at the Winter Meetings earlier this month. "We have a robust infrastructure and a number of long-tenured support staff from massage therapists and strength and conditioning coaches to athletic trainers that I think can help and I think there's a meaningful difference between hiring to create the infrastructure in response to a particular pursuit versus having these people embedded in the organization and understanding what a season looks like, have many, many years of experiences and intimate knowledge of how to help with the transition.
"Specifically, there's a legacy of Japanese stars who have come over to contribute to World Series championships, whether that's Daisuke or Koji or Taz and others. So that can be a very valuable recruiting tool, only in so much as they've had great experiences here and continue to come back and visit or even make Boston their home (as Matsuzaka has)."
Other preliminary factors didn't seem to be as encouraging for the Red Sox but haven't impacted Sasaki's initial list of meetings. Sasaki's agent, Joel Wolfe, noted that because of the impact of negative media coverage in Japan, a "soft landing" with a small or mid-market team might be beneficial for Sasaki. Of course, the meetings with both New York teams mean he's willing to listen to at least some teams from big markets. Japanese players are always thought to be more likely to sign with west coast teams because of the shorter travel time home; Wolfe said Sasaki would consider all types of geography and that has proven true based on the meetings to this point.
Sasaki has the benefit of being able to take his time, with at least two more weeks of meetings and recruitments to go before he can put pen to paper. In that time, it seems like the Red Sox will need him to reverse course to be strongly considered.
"This is someone who makes any rotation better the moment they join," said Breslow. "As we think about pursuing front of the rotation options, I think it makes sense to canvas the entire landscape and we'll be as aggressive and as strategic as possible."