Texas Rangers Boss Addresses Team's Free-Agent Pursuit of Roki Sasaki

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers missed out on international prospect Roki Sasaki, and for the first time president of baseball operations Chris Young addressed the team’s pursuit of the Japanese superstar.

Sasaki signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, the end of a month-long courtship in which more than half of the teams in MLB pitched themselves as a landing spot.

In the end, Sasaki ended up with the Dodgers, the team most insiders expected him to sign with. Young said he had no reason to believe that Sasaki or his agent, Joel Wolfe, handled the process unfairly.

“I know Joel Wolfe, his agent, well,” Young said. “I trust Joel immensely and the Wasserman firm. I can’t suggest that there was anything that wasn’t a fair process, but I don’t know everything.”

Young was part of a question-and-answer session with fans during Rangers Fanfest on Saturday at Globe Life Field. He made the comments about Sasaki afterward.

He was asked about the team’s pursuit of Sasaki. The Rangers were one of seven teams that reportedly got a meeting with him and Wolfe in December in Los Angeles.

It appears that’s as far as it went. But Young was confident his team did everything possible to interest him in signing with the Rangers.

“I’m proud of our organization. We put our best foot forward,” Young said. “We made a great presentation. I felt we presented who we are as an organization, how we felt like we were a great fit. And, you know, at that point, it’s up to the player to decide if it’s a fit.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get a visit, but I can say that we’ve had a number of free agents that are star players and well-accomplished big leaguers who want to be Texas Rangers, and I think is speaks for what we’ve done as an organization, and we’ll continue to focus on players that want to be here.”

Sasaki ended up with an organization that features two of the top Japanese players in the world; three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani and pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

As Ohtani is set to return to the mound this season, and Sasaki is a Major League-ready pitcher, it’s possible all three could be in the rotation this year.

Because Sasaki is considered an international free agent, Major League teams are only allowed to use their bonus pool money to sign him. That balanced the playing field somewhat and allowed the Rangers to get in the pursuit.