Padres Emerge as 'New Choice' to Land Roki Sasaki Among Executives

The Roki Sasaki offseason is one that is already proving to be unforgettable.

The 23-year-old right hander has interviewed with at least seven teams since being posted by his Nippon Professional Baseball team, the Chiba Lotte Marines last month.

The San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets and Yankees, Texas Rangers, Chicago Cubs, and San Francisco Giants have all been confirmed to have had an in-person meeting with Sasaki.

Although these meetings were not permitted to having players present, that didn't stop Padres pitcher Yu Darvish from letting his intentions be known. The Athletic's Dennis Lin reported that he, "is said to badly want the young right-hander as his teammate" and has a "Godfather-like relationship" with Sasaki due to their time on the Japan national team in the World Baseball Classic.

This may be why USA Today's Bob Nightengale reported that "the San Diego Padres have emerged as the new choice among executives."

Since Sasaki is under 25-years-old, he is limited to MLB's International bonus pool restrictions which range from a little over $5.1 million to $7.5 million,

This evens the playing field with team like the Dodgers who are not afraid of the luxury tax when it comes to signing free agents.

There is no question that the phenom would be an instant talent boost to any team, but this already unprecedented sweepstakes even featured an "unspecified homework assignment" sent to interested teams.

The right-hander and agent Joel Wolfe reportedly gave teams the assignment to see how teams "can analyze and communicate information with him.”

The Padres would certainly benefit from Sasaki's talent, but both parties could potentially benefit from his price tag.

San Diego has yet to make a move this off-season and Sasaki would be an extremely low-cost but high-talent move. They also provide a smaller-market, but much larger outside endorsement opportunity.

If he were to sign with the Dodgers for example, there are two Japanese-born legends not just on the roster, but in his would-be pitching rotation in Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. They also occupy most of the Japanese endorsement space in Los Angeles.

Darvish, still extremely effective but with many of his best outings behind him, would not be competing as hard for these deals off the field. Given the nature of the two pitchers' relationship, it is hard to imagine any bad-blood if that were the case.

In Sasaki's four NPB seasons, he has posted an ERA of 2.10 with an unreal 505 strikeouts to only 88 walks through his 64 appearances.

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