Breaking: Mariners’ Pursuit of Roki Sasaki Gains Momentum
We haven’t heard much connection between the Seattle Mariners and Roki Sasaki’s free agent market this offseason, but former major league reliever Trevor May thinks that we should be.
May, a Seattle native, connected Sasaki as a possible fit for the Mariners this past weekend on MLB Network Radio.
Because he hasn’t been a professional long enough in Japan, Sasaki will receive a very modest contract in the United States. He’ll be subject to international signing bonus pool money and should get a deal of less than $10 million, which means that even the modest-Mariners can afford him from a budget perspective.
Just 23 years old, Sasaki has a fastball in the upper 90s and a devastating splitter.
The following comes from MLBTradeRumors:
The 6’2″ hurler has posted dominant numbers on a rate basis in NPB. He has a career 2.10 earned run average in nearly 400 innings. This year’s 2.35 ERA was the highest of any of his four seasons. In a relative down year, Sasaki punched out nearly 29% of batters faced against a manageable 7.1% walk percentage.
On the surface, the Seattle Mariners don’t need a starting pitcher. The group of Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo is arguably the best in baseball. However, bringing in Sasaki could do wonders for Seattle on multiple fronts.
First, if the team were to sign Sasaki, they could potentially trade away one of their other pitchers. While no one wants to do that, trading from the position of power is likely the quickest and most effective way for Seattle to get the bats it needs to fill out the lineup.
Furthermore, there are concerns over the workloads of Seattle’s pitchers. Signing Sasaki would allow the M’s to deploy a six-man rotation at times and help keep everyone fresh for a hopeful playoff run. It would also provide depth to the rotation in case any pitchers were injured. Teams in Japan use six-man rotations, so this would benefit Sasaki as well.
The Mariners have had plenty of success with Japanese players in the past, which would be a great selling point in negotiations. Ichiro, Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Kenji Johjima and Kaz Sasaki have all been big parts of Mariners teams and had individual success. Yusei Kikuchi also made an All-Star Game with Seattle in 2021.
