The Pittsburgh Pirates are in the running for Japanese right-handed star pitcher Roki Sasaki, who is an international free agent.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have had a relatively quiet offseason outside of trading for left-handed hitting first baseman Spencer Horwitz. Of the remaining free agents, few will make a bigger splash than when Japanese right-handed star pitcher Roki Sasaki decides where he's going to sign. Sasaki was posted by his team, the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball , on Dec. 9 and he'll have until Jan. 23. Across the last four seasons, Sasaki went 30-15 with a 2.
02 ERA and he struck out 524 batters over 414.2 innings pitched. MLB's Jon Morosi reported that the seven teams the star right-hander has met with thus far are the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers. He also added that there's one other team that isn't among the listed teams that has met with Sasaki. If it was a traditional bidding war for a free agent, the Pirates wouldn't be able to hold a candle to teams like the Dodgers, Mets and Yankees. But with Sasaki being 23 years old and now accruing enough service time outside of the MLB, he's an international free agent and subject to what teams have in their, putting nearly every team on an even playing field who are in pursuit of the flamethrowing right-hander. Pittsburgh is tied for having the second-highest international signing bonus pool. There's no telling if the Pirates are indeed the mystery team that's in on Sasaki, but they'd fit part of the criteria he's seeking, per his agent, Joel Wolfe. Wolfe highlighted a team's pitching development as one of the deciding factors in Sasaki's eventual decision. 'I believe Roki is also very interested in the pitching development and how a team is going to help him get better, both in the near future and over the course of his career.' Few teams have developed a better cast of pitchers throughout their system than the Pirate
PIRATES SASAKI ROKE INTERNATIONAL FREE AGENT PITCHING DEVELOPMENT
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