The Yankees met with star Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki on Thursday, the same day he met with the cross-town rival New York Mets.
is a highly sought-after commodity this winter. The 23-year-old ace from the NPB’s Chiba Lotte Marines announced that he intends to sign with an MLB team for the 2025 season once he was posted earlier this month. Sasaki is coming off his fourth season with the Marines and posted a 10-5 record with a dazzling 2.35 ERA, 1.036 WHIP, and a 129/32 K/BB ratio.
On Friday, it was revealed that the Yankees had managed to secure a meeting with Sasaki in Los Angeles on the same day as the Mets, according to. Yankees’ general manager Brian Cashman, who also traveled with scouts to Japan to watch Sasaki earlier in the season, had provided a virtual presentation for Sasaki which helped them get the in-person meeting in California. Sasaki was also known to have an in-person meeting with the Chicago Cubs on Friday.
However, the Yankees are facing tough competition from the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sasaki has a close relationship with Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish as well as his 2023 World Baseball Classic teammates Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Unlike previous Japanese players, Sasaki has not stated that he has a preference to play on the West Coast.
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