Japan’s Roki Sasaki delivers a pitch during the first inning of a World Baseball Classic game against Mexico, March 20, 2023, in Miami.
11:04 JST, June 21, 2024
TOKYO (AP) โ Roki Sasaki, the 22-year-old Japanese pitcher who could move to Major League Baseball next season, will miss his second consecutive start this weekend due to an unspecified injury to his right arm, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported .
Chiba Lotte Marines manager Masato Yoshii explained the move due to the “poor condition of his (Sasaki’s) right arm”, Kyodo reported on Thursday. It is not yet clear when he will throw next time.
Sasaki is 5-2 in nine starts this season with 70 strikeouts. He has thrown 59 2/3 innings with an earned run average of 1.96.
If Sasaki makes a move to the MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers are expected to be a top bidder, where he could join fellow Japanese players Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Sasaki could land another great contract, but it would cost an MLB team relatively little if he signs before age 25.
Japanese players require nine years of service in their major leagues to become free agents. They can move to the MLB sooner under an agreement between Nippon Professional Baseball and MLB, which establishes a placement system in which a Japanese club makes a player available for bids and receives a release fee: 20% of a Major’s first $25 million League contract, 17.5% of the next $25 million and 15% of any amount over $50 million.
However, a player under the age of 25 who has less than six years of service in a foreign major league is subject to MLB’s international amateur signing bonus pools, which set a hard cap and initially limit him to a minor league contract.
