It was only a matter of time before we learned when the Cubs would have their in-person meeting with star Japanese free agent Roki Sasaki and it's now been confirmed. According to Chicago baseball insider Bruce Levine, the Cubs are meeting with the 23-year-old starting pitcher on Friday.
The Cubs are the latest team to reportedly have a face-to-face meeting with Sasaki this week in Los Angeles, joining both the Yankees and Mets. The first round of in-person meetings will all take place in LA.
Sources -Japanese free agent pitching ace Roki Sasaki is meeting with the Chicago Cubs today. All meetings for Sasaki are taking place in LA.
— Bruce Levine (@MLBBruceLevine) December 20, 2024
Sasaki's 45-day posting period ends on Jan. 23. He has until then to sign and because the pitcher is part of the 2025 international free agent pool of players, Sasaki will not sign until Jan. 15 at the earliest. Of course, we could learn of his decision in the days leading up to that date.
The Cubs submitted their initial presentation to Sasaki's representatives earlier in December. While the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres are seen as the favorites to ultimately woo Sasaki, the Cubs have been mentioned as serious players to sign the phenom pitcher.
In recent years, the Cubs have signed fellow Japanese free agents Seiya Suzuki and Shōta Imanaga. Suzuki's agent, Joel Wolfe, also represents Sasaki.
Sasaki ended the 2024 season with 111 innings pitched with the Chiba Lotte Marines in the NPB. The righty posted a 2.35 ERA with 129 strikeouts in 18 starts and to give you some perspective on how talented Sasaki is, that was considered a down year for him. Overall in four seasons, Sasaki has recorded a 2.10 ERA in 394.2 innings, averaging more than 11 strikeouts per nine innings and allowing a total of 15 home runs in 64 games.
Here are what some scouts said earlier in the offseason about Sasaki.
Via MLB.com.
“He’s as good as advertised,” one international scouting director said. “He has an ideal projectable, lean and athletic frame. He has excellent arm action and delivery, with three plus power pitches with control over command. He has No. 1 upside.”
Throwing out that “No. 1” label is not something scouts do freely, but that director was not the only one to do so.
“In my opinion, he’s a top-end starter,” another director said. “I wouldn’t say he’s Ohtani, but from a pitching standpoint, it’s very comparative. I’ve been seeing him since he was 19, and saw him on the national team. It’s an explosive arm.”
Sasaki features a 70-grade fastball that sits between 95-99mph and has gotten up to 102mph in the past. He also throws a nasty splitter that produced a 57.1% whiff rate in Japan this past season. That number would have ranked second-best among MLB pitchers in this category with a minimum of 100 swings on splitters. Sasaki's third pitch is a slider that's average to above average and still misses bat at the tune of 40.7% in 2024. The slider did regress a bit, but the fastball-splitter combo is as good as it gets.
