San Francisco Giants GM Says Roki Sasaki Will Not Sign With Team

According to San Francisco Giants general manager Zack Minasian, Roki Sasaki will not be signing with them.

Mar 20, 2023; Miami, Florida, USA; Japan starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (14) delivers a pitch during the first inning against Mexico at LoanDepot Park / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The San Francisco Giants have made some splashy moves this winter under first-year executive Buster Posey by bringing in Willy Adames and Justin Verlander, but they were hoping to make some more.

Every team around the league was hoping to sign Roki Sasaki, and the Giants were no exception.

The 23-year-old Japanese phenom is coming to the United States before the usual posting age, meaning he can only be inked to an international contract instead of the megadeals his fellow countrymen have signed in the past.

Because of that, the competition was fierce for Sasaki.

San Francisco was able to get a meeting with the future star, something that put them in a good position to land the talented youngster, but it sounds like they won't be signing him.

Giants general manager Zack Minasian said the Giants were told that they would not be Roki Sasaki's destination.

— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) January 13, 2025

This is a tough blow for the Giants.

After already signing Verlander to a short-term contract, adding Sasaki on something extremely affordable deal to give them an ace-caliber arm alongside Logan Webb for the future was hard not to get excited about.

It's long been thought the phenom would end up with the Los Angeles Dodgers, mainly because of his connections to Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and this does nothing to dispel that notion.

Sasaki is known to have met with at least seven teams with it being understood that one of them would be his destination.

That's why there was hope San Francisco would win these sweepstakes.

But, this report has revealed that general manager Zack Minasian was told they would not be the team Sasaki signs with, ending speculation he would join the Giants.