Texas Rangers among ‘obvious front-runners’ for Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki, report says

The Texas Rangers’ pursuit of Japanese star pitcher Roki Sasaki has been no secret, and it appears president of baseball operations Chris Young’s efforts have not been fruitless.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported on Friday that the Rangers are one of “the obvious front-runners” for Sasaki’s services. The other teams he mentioned are the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees and Padres, simply because “they have met with Sasaki and other teams have not.”

The Rangers did get a meeting with Sasaki’s camp in December, which was confirmed by Young.

“We really enjoyed our time, but that’s about the extent of anything I will say on that today,” Young said during a Zoom availability.

Young has been fairly aggressive and involved in the courting of the Japanese phenom. He even headed to Japan to personally scout Sasaki in mid-September.

Sasaki, 23, was posted by his Nippon Professional Baseball club in December and since he is not yet 25, he can only sign from teams’ international free agent bonus pools. This ranges from $5,146,200 to $7,555,500, and the Rangers are one of 12 teams with a pool of $6,261,600 to spend as of Jan. 15.

Sasaki’s agent Joel Wolfe said Sasaki could also visit one or two cities ahead of his signing window, which runs from Jan. 15-23.

“I don’t know where he’s going to end up, and anyone who tells you otherwise is kidding themselves,” Rosenthal said of Sasaki’s free agency process.

While plenty of mystery remains with Sasaki’s decision, the Rangers appear to be squarely in the mix.

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