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DALLAS — The agent of 23-year-old Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki met with reporters Tuesday at MLB's Winter Meetings to discuss his client's unique free-agent process, during which Sasaki can only be offered a finite amount from teams' international bonus pools.
Takeaways from agent Joel Wolfe included that Sasaki does not necessarily require a team with a Japanese mentor, nor are his choices limited to the West Coast. Both have been popular beliefs, which is why the industry expectation is that the right-handed starting pitcher ends up with either the Padres or Dodgers.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said a few hours later Tuesday that the team does indeed plan to make a presentation to Sasaki if they're on his short list, and that he has not been told by Wolfe that the pitcher's market is limited to San Diego and L.A.
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Sasaki is only 23 years old so he is not subject to the same free-agent rules as Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who signed a 12-year, $325 million contract with the Dodgers last winter after a pursuit that included the Phillies. Yamamoto was 25 years old when he signed his contract. If an international free agent is younger than 25, like Sasaki, he is considered an amateur and must be signed through the international bonus pool system.
Every major-league team has between $5.1 million and $7.55 million in its bonus pool so all offers will be similar. A team's bonus pool is reduced when it signs a free agent who rejected a qualifying offer from his former club. This is why the Giants, who signed Blake Snell and Matt Chapman last winter, and the Dodgers (Shohei Ohtani) have the lowest allotments.
It's a direct example of the price a team pays to sign a free agent with a qualifying offer attached. There's not just the free-agent cost, there's also the loss of two high picks in the domestic draft and money in international free agency. Among potential Phillies free-agent fits, qualifying offers were rejected by Teoscar Hernandez, Anthony Santander and Alex Bregman.
The Phils are in the middle of the pack with a bonus pool of $6,261,600 — the same number as the Braves, Red Sox, Cubs, White Sox, Angels, Mets, Yankees, Padres, Rangers, Blue Jays and Nationals.
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They want to meet with Sasaki but it's up to him.
"We're just like everybody else, we're very interested," Dombrowski said from the Phillies' suite at the Hilton Anatole. "My understanding is that they are going to meet themselves first, Joel Wolfe said to some of our people. They know everybody is interested. They'll let some clubs know that they're still involved in the process.
"So we are prepared to make a presentation, our people have been working on it for an extended time. We're ready to do that but they have to tell us that you're one of the so many clubs that he's willing to go to. They're making their presentation to him to let him know this is the background of these clubs. We'd love to have a presentation for him. We hope we're in that group but we don't know."
The Phillies have never signed a player directly out of Japan, and many who have made the transition have opted to play on the West Coast. The flight is shorter, the weather is better and there's more of an infrastructure in place with the Dodgers, Padres and Mariners specifically.
The Phillies are a longshot but it's a pursuit worth making given the age and upside of Sasaki, who owns a 2.02 career ERA in Japan. He cannot sign until January 15, when the 2025 international free-agent period opens.
"I do feel we've made inroads, I do think we continue to grow and scout (in Japan) and have our personnel there," Dombrowski said. "I think we're much more well-known there than we've been in the past, but unfortunately it hasn't translated to signing somebody.
"Some of our personnel think it's an advantage to not have signed somebody because you can say you're the first person, you're coming to a quality ballclub, you can be the person. There's other people who look at it the other way, that it's not advantageous because we don't have a Japanese player on our team. I think everybody would look at it from different views."
The Phillies' interest in Sasaki does not mean that they'll play in the market for a top free-agent pitcher like Corbin Burnes. Max Fried came off the board Tuesday evening with an eight-year, $218 million agreement with the Yankees. The Phillies were never in on him. It does help that Fried is leaving the NL East, though.
The opportunity with Sasaki this offseason and with Yamamoto last winter was different. Both are so young that they can grow with a team from now through the end of their primes. And Sasaki is even more attractive because he'd cost 1.8% as much as Yamamoto did.
"You're always interested in really good players and we think he's a premium guy," Dombrowski said. "It may not be (a need) but you can never have too many good players. We would love to have, going into the future, Sasaki and (Andrew) Painter going for years to come. It would be pretty good."
It sure would. It's not up to the Phillies, though. They just have to cross their fingers that they make the cut.
