The Roki Sasaki sweepstakes have reached its final stage, and the Yankees don’t even have a spot on the podium.
The 23-year-old phenom has decided the finalists for his services are the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and the Toronto Blue Jays making him the latest Japanese star to tell the Bombers, no.
“He is really gifted and very young,” Aaron Boone said of Sasaki, who has a 2.02 ERA over four NPB seasons, earlier this offseason. “Obviously he’s already done quite a bit in Japan. So we know it’s a unique and special talent, a guy with top of the rotation qualities.
“This is a really, really special talent that’s going to be coming over to Major League Baseball next year.”
And he will be wearing not be wearing a Yankee uniform.
Sasaki continued a troubling trend for the Yanks. The allure of the pinstripes and legacy of the Bronx Bombers has not only fallen on deaf ears in the United States but has now traveled across seas to Japan.
The Yanks were arguably the biggest draw for players in Japan in previous years — despite their seemingly undesirable location on the East Coast for nearly every star from the Nippon Professional Baseball league.
Hideki Irabu, Hideki Matsui, Masahiro Tanaka and others chose the Yankees immediately out of Japan, however, no player of significance coming across the Pacific Ocean has chosen the pinstripes since Tanaka in 2014.
The three latest stars to make the move from NPB to MLB have rejected the Bronx. Shohei Ohtani didn’t even give the Yanks a seat at the table in 2017 — despite reporting indicating that he was the Yankees player to lose prior to making the jump — or in 2024 as he inked his famously deferred 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers. Yoshinobu Yamamoto reportedly considered the Bombers as they were the runner-ups for his services last offseason before inking a deal with — you guessed it — the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Now Saskai is seemingly heading west and while the Blue Jays are unsurprisingly finalists — as they have been for virtually every free agent on the market before being told no — it would be a massive upset should they be victorious over the Dodgers and Padres.
The preference of the West Coast has seemingly grown larger for Japanese players and the Yanks are no longer the only show in MLB that can provide consistent winning or money. The Dodgers have built a well-oiled machine and a massive brand in Japan making them the clear-cut desired destination.
Sasaki continuing the trend of rejection is troublesome moving forward, especially next season. Slugging corner infielder Munetaka Murakami is expected to make the jump to MLB next offseason and he would fit the Bombers like a glove. The left-handed hitter has a career .938 OPS in NPB with 241 homers in seven seasons.
The 24-year-old will be a normal free agent, so he will be able to earn a legitimate contract unlike Sasaki who came over as an International Free Agent and is only limited to signing bonus money and a standard rookie-scale contract. Not to mention, the Yankees will have a clear hole at first base as Paul Goldschmidt was signed as a stop-gap on a one-year deal for whatever long-term plans they have for first.
Murakami’s swing in Yankee Stadium is what dreams are made of for Brian Cashman and company. However, they will have to buck the trend of rejection and pony up the most cash.
If Juan Soto taught the Bombers one thing, it’s few people truly care about the allure of pinstripes and the legacy of the Yankees. It’s merely become a soundbite for players at press conferences who decided to sign the dotted lines with the Bombers because they were the highest bidder.
Sasaki confirmed that sentiment when he became the latest to reject the Bronx.
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