In the ongoing competition to sign generational Japanese pitching prodigy Roki Sasaki, the Boston Red Sox looked like they were dead. During his recent trip to Los Angeles, the 23-year old Chiba Lotte Marines righty met with seven teams, including two from the East Coast.
The Red Sox were not invited.
Boston was one of 20 teams to submit a written pitch to Sasaki, so when it failed to muster an invite to meet, that could only be taken as a bad sign. Then, on Friday, a report by former Washington Nationals and Cincinnati Reds general manager Jim Bowden, who now writes for The Athletic, stated that Sasaki had narrowed down his field of possible teams to six.
Not surprisingly, those six teams were the same ones who met with Sasaki in Los Angeles — minus one. Both New York teams, the Yankees and Mets, were on Sasaki’s list according to Bowden, along with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Texas Rangers, Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres. Of the teams that met with Sasaki in person, only the San Francisco Giants have been counted out, according to the former GM.
But is Bowden’s report correct? According to Rob Bradford, a writer for Boston’s WEEI.com and host of the popular Audacity Sports podcast “Baseball Isn’t Boring,” the Red Sox may not be out of the Sasaki sweepstakes just yet.
“Per source, Red Sox haven’t been told they are out of Roki Sasaki mix,” Bradford reported on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
But if they are not “out,” does that mean the Red Sox are “in”? Bradford, or his source, did not say. Sasaki’s agent Joel Wolfe has said that Sasaki may yet meet with “one or two teams,” beyond those who met him in Los Angeles.
Under MLB’s international free agency rules, Sasaki must make up his mind sometime between Jan. 15-23, so the Red Sox will know within the next three weeks whether they ever had a chance to land the young fireballer.
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