The Boston Red Sox already acquired perhaps the most underpaid starting pitcher in the major leagues when they traded for Garrett Crochet. Crochet, an All-Star in 2024, was traded to Boston Dec. 11 for four prospects and is estimated to make $2.9 million in his second year of arbitration eligibility.
Boston's quest to add another starting pitcher at a below-market rate appears to have hit a snag.
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Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told the Boston Globe that the Sox haven't scheduled a meeting with free agent Roki Sasaki and his representatives in Southern California and haven't been invited to do so.
Because Sasaki is 23 years old and lacks the requisite experience pitching at the highest level in Japan, he is limited to a signing bonus within a team's international amateur spending pool limits. That means he can make no more than approximately $7.5 million plus the major league minimum in 2025.
As soon as he throws his first pitch in MLB, Sasaki could be among the lowest-paid players in baseball relative to his talent.
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When he was 20, Sasaki threw a 19-strikeout perfect game for the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2022. In his next start, he threw eight more perfect innings in a row. In the 2023 World Baseball Classic, his fastball sat 100 mph.
Last season, Sasaki went 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA in 18 starts for Chiba Lotte, with 129 strikeouts in 111 innings. The Marines formally posted him earlier this month.
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Sasaki will not finalize his contract before Jan. 15, when the 2025 international amateur signing period begins.
As noted by Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com, who cited a source with knowledge of Sasaki's free agency, Boston is "not necessarily out" on the pitcher. Sasaki's agent, Joel Wolfe of Wasserman, informed teams earlier this month that the pitcher meet with additional teams (ones that don't get December meetings) in January.
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"Still," Cotillo writes, "it's not a good sign for the Red Sox that they're not part of the first round of meetings, especially after Breslow and a team of officials made a special scouting trip to watch Sasaki pitch in Japan earlier this year."
More to come on this story from Newsweek Sports.
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