News and Notes: Roki Sasaki Will Not be Signing With Cleveland
Jeff Passan of ESPN reports that Japanese pitching phenom Roki Sasaki will sign with the Dodgers, Padres or Blue Jays:
The finalists for Japanese star right-hander Roki Sasaki are the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays, sources tell ESPN. Sasaki will decide on his team by the closing of his posting window Jan. 23.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 13, 2025
Quincy Wheeler of Covering the Corner reports that Sasaki will sign with the Dodgers. Because of course he will. He can absolutely do what he wants, and I can absolutely decide to loathe him for making things easier on LA to repeat as World Series champions.
Now, several Cleveland sports commenters have noted that the Guardians seems set to have about $2 million left in international free agency money, which they could choose to trade to the team signing Sasaki or to use to sign free agents set adrift because of Sasaki's signing.
The Cleveland #Guardians currently have almost $5MM dollars committed to 26 players for Wednesday's international signing day. They have just a shade over $2MM left to spend of the $6,908,600 that was allocated to them.
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) January 13, 2025
It will be interesting if the Guardians try to sign another…
The Guardians still have around $2 million remaining in International Pool money. They could potentially steal a prospect from one of the finalists waiting on Sasaki's decision or trade their remaining Pool money to one of those teams.
— Guardians of The Land (@OurCLEGuardians) January 13, 2025
Something to watch very closely this week.
It's impossible to say whom the Dodgers, Padres or Blue Jays might decide to let go from handshake agreements to sign Sasaki and also impossible to say what player the Guardians could pry from any of those three teams for $2 million of international free agency money and perhaps other pieces. James Outman has been a much discussed piece from the Dodgers, and while he can play center, his swing-and-miss problems are a bit terrifying. We will see what happens, probably before too much longer.
You can look at the top international free agents from Baseball America here (for a price). Cleveland is expected to sign four of the top 100 on that list.
For those who care about the Hall of Fame, Ryan Thibodaux's strong work has Ichiro, Billy Wagner and C.C. Sabathia looking like they'll get the call later this month:
At 133 ballots/~33.9% known: Ichiro 100% CC 91.7% Wagner 83.5% Beltrán 77.4% - Andruw 72.2% Utley 51.9% A-Rod 42.1% Manny 38.3% Pettitte 30.1% Félix 25.6% Abreu 21.1% Rollins 20.3% Buehrle 13.5% Vizquel 13.5% Pedroia 12.0% Wright 10.5% K-Rod 8.3% - Martin 4.5% McCann 3.8% Kinsler 3.0% Hunter 1.5%
— Ryan Thibodaux (@notmrtibbs.com) 2025-01-13T15:54:28.751Z
Other than that, we are just sitting and looking out the window, waiting for spring.