The 2024-25 Major League Baseball offseason has begun, and that means an almost daily supply of rumors regarding free agency, trades, and the like. With the General Managers’ Meetings ongoing, this week is no exception, even as we’re just dipping our toes into the hot stove season. Speaking of all that, Thursday’s supply of scuttlebutt — scuttlebutt! — can be found just below.
Sasaki’s agent denies handshake agreement with Dodgers
The 23-year-old right-hander Roki Sasaki is the latest star poised to make the leap from the Japan to the U.S. major leagues, and he’s also one of the most coveted starting pitchers on the market. Because Sasaki is so young and also doesn’t have the requisite service time in NPB, Japan’s top professional circuit, he’s subject to MLB’s rules governing international amateur free agents. As such, he’s going to be subject to signing bonus limits and sign for far, far less than he’d get on anything resembling an open market.
Theoretically, that puts all teams in the mix based on the amount of money left in their international bonus pools. However, expectation and rumor have it that the Dodgers are Sasaki’s preferred destination, possibly to the extent that there’s already an informal agreement in place. This week, however, Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, strongly pushed back against that possibility. Here’s what he said to Evan Drellich of The Athletic about those rumors: