So far, so good on the Yankees‘ free-agency Plan B. The team has reacted to a certain top Mets slugger who shall remain nameless by doubling down on pitching, adding free-agent Max Fried to man the top of the rotation alongside Gerrit Cole and shoring up the back end of the bullpen with the trade for Devin Williams.
The Yankees remain in the hunt for more infield help, but the team is not ruling out continuing to beef up a rotation that now has Rookie of the Year Luis Gil in the No. 3 spot, $162 million man Carlos Rodon at No. 4 and a variety of options (Clarke Schmidt, Will Warren, Marcus Stroman) to fill in the fifth spot.
Ah but there’s always room for one more. And that could be the case with the Yankees as they have put together an earnest pursuit of 23-year-old Japanese star Roki Sasaki, the flame-throwing righty who tops 102 mph on the radar gun. Sasaki has been posted to MLB teams, and is expected to sign this winter.
Yankees Could Pile on the Pitching
According to Bleacher Report, the Yankees are among the top spots for Sasaki to land. His agent, Joel Wolfe, has said that Sasaki gave no indication he would be opposed to playing on the East Coast, which opens a path to get him to the Bronx.
As B/R wrote: “Starting pitching is already a strength for the Yankees, but the organization should treat overkill as underrated. It was a huge win that they got to the World Series for the first time in 15 years, but a huge loss that they won only one game in losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“The Yankees can attempt to sell Sasaki on the chance to be the guy who takes the team back over the top. With help, of course, from Cole, Fried, Aaron Judge and up-and-comers like Anthony Volpe and top prospect Jasson Domínguez.”
Roki Sasaki Will Be a Bargain
Because Sasaki is entering the MLB process early, he can only be paid with teams’ pool of international signing money. The Yankees have a little more than $5 million available. That means Sasaki would be a cheap entry into the league for three years, at which point he would be eligible for a significant raise.
That was the path Shohei Ohtani took into American baseball in 2017, when he was 23. He got a signing bonus of $2.3 million with the Angels, and earned a total of $1.6 million in salary for his first three seasons combined. Sasaki would be a similar bargain.
Sasaki was 7-4 with a 1.78 ERA in 2023, and a strikeout rate of 13.4 per 9 innings. He was 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA and 10.5 strikeouts per 9 innings, a drop that concerns some teams.
The Yankees would also very much like to get themselves back into the Japanese market, where the franchise has had some successes—outfielder Hideki Matsui and pitcher Masahiro Tanaka—but also some spectacular failures, like pitchers Hideki Irabu and Kei Igawa.
GM Brian Cashman confirmed the Yankees’ interest in Sasaki last week.
“Big arm with a big desire to be great,” Cashman said. “And I know his intent is to be one of the game’s greatest pitchers on the planet. We certainly would love to participate in allowing that to happen.”
