A fair number of respondents to the survey chose the Cubs.
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Now that the MLB non-tender deadline has passed, thoughts will turn to free agency.
Apart from Juan Soto, the player who’s created perhaps the most buzz this offseason is Roki Sasaki, who is going to be posted by his NPB team, the Chiba Lotte Marines.
The Marines are likely not going to post him until sometime in early December. The reason for that is that once Sasaki is officially posted, a 45-day clock begins for MLB teams to sign him. MLB’s international bonus pools reset beginning January 15. Thus it would make sense for the Marines to post Sasaki to take advantage of the larger bonus pools available next year — in part because the Marines will get a payment of 20 percent of whatever Sasaki gets from a MLB team.
Earlier this week Commissioner Rob Manfred said as much:
Rob Manfred says Roki Sasaki is expected to be part of the 2025 international signing class: “It looks like … the signing there will happen in the new pool period”
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) November 20, 2024
A recent SB Nation Reacts survey asked fans who they thought Sasaki would sign with. Here are the results:
Well, of course, the Dodgers. That seems to be the consensus for just about any Japanese player now that Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are Dodgers. The Padres, whose Japanese star Yu Darvish is said to be “revered” by Japanese players, came in second in the survey.
But look at who’s third — yes, the Cubs. Personally, I think the Cubs have as good a chance as anyone, with their two Japanese players Shōta Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki available as possible ambassadors to help convince Sasaki to sign in Chicago.
Also this week, rumors that Sasaki already had a “handshake deal” were shot down by Sasaki’s agent Joel Wolfe:
Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe of Wasserman, denied the allegation on Wednesday, hours after commissioner Rob Manfred also tried to quell the topic.
“While a bunch of executives who should know me better and do a lot of business with me insult my integrity by insinuating that I would be a part of some type of nefarious agreement,” Wolfe told The Athletic, “in reality, this is just poor sportsmanship.”
Also, if there is any such agreement, the article says, MLB would investigate and likely levy severe penalties on any team that did that. From Commissioner Rob Manfred:
“There are certain things — exchange of information, whatever — that (were) perfectly allowable,” Manfred said Wednesday. “The concern with those agreements comes when, for example, the American club has some priority access to players that are under control because it would allow them to expand the number of players they have under control. And we’ve always been scrupulous about not allowing those.”
As far as Joel Wolfe is concerned, the Cubs have experience dealing with him, as he is Darvish’s agent. That doesn’t mean Sasaki should be a favorite to go to San Diego, either. I think the Cubs have as good a chance as any team to sign Sasaki. And if they do, that’s a game-changer for this offseason, in my view.