The Chiba Lotte Marines announced Saturday that they will begin the process of posting Roki Sasaki, the Japanese right-hander considered one of the most talented pitchers in the world, paving the way for the 23-year-old to join Major League Baseball in 2025.
The posting system is the method of transfer between MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball that makes him available to all 30 teams.
Sasaki, nicknamed The Monster of the Reiwa Era, throws a fastball that regularly reaches triple digits and complements it with a frontline split-fingered fastball and a slider.
Because of his age, Sasaki is considered an international amateur free agent and can only sign a minor league contract, which drastically limits how much teams can pay him — and how much Lotte reaps through the associated 20% posting fee. Players who are at least 25 years old with six years played in a foreign league can sign major league contracts when posted. Had he waited, Sasaki could have sought a deal for hundreds of millions of dollars, similar to Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier this year for 12 years and $325 million. Instead, Sasaki, who asked to be posted last year but was denied by the team, will take a similar path to Shohei Ohtani, the superstar who arrived in MLB at 23 and signed with the Los Angeles Angels for $2.3 million.