"Sasaki-Dodgers has already signed a contract with him" Rumor has it that Tampering is circulating, and the confidence of his Cy Young-sang colleagues "He will do very well in the U.S."

Nov 12, 2024

Chiba Lotte Marines Sasaki Rocky is most likely to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers. There are even rumors of tampering. AP Yonhap News

Dallas Keuchel pitched in four games for the Milwaukee Brewers in the first half of this year. AP Yonhap News

Dallas Keuchel, the Cy Young Award winner, played for the Chiba Lotte Marines this year and briefly shared the same rice with Rocky Sasaki.

Keuchel signed a contract with Chiba Lotte on July 31 (Korea time) and entered the NPB and played as a starting pitcher for about two months. He started eight games and pitched 40 innings, marking 2-4 with a 3.60 ERA, 15 walks, 29 strikeouts, and WHIP 1.30. It is not known whether he will be able to continue his career in Japan, but he will turn 37 next year, and he is not known to have any intention of retiring. However, Keuchel suddenly brings up Sasaki and draws extraordinary attention.

In an interview with New York Post reporter Joel Sherman on the 11th, Keuchel heard rumors that the contract between Sasaki and the Dodgers was already over. It's also true that the Dodgers have plans for him. If I were a gambler, I would have walked the Dodgers to the most likely destination for Sasaki. But I don't know."

Chiba Lotte officially announced on the 10th that it would post this winter about Sasaki, who has been engaged in a war of nerves over overseas expansion. Then, the Major League has been buzzing for several days. Big market clubs such as the Dodgers, the New York Mets, the San Francisco Giants, the San Diego Padres, the Chicago Cubs, and the New York Yankees are mentioned as clubs that can sign Sasaki.

Sasaki-Otani-Yamamoto posing together at the WBC in March last year. AP Yonhap News

The Dodgers are considered the No. 1 candidate because they have various environments that Sasaki may like. The biggest attraction is that it is based in LA, the western part of the American continent, which is familiar to Asians.

In addition, the Dodgers is one of the pillars dividing the Major League market with the Yankees. It is a representative big market club. In addition, it is a club that any player admires by wiping out their power to win every year. Besides, everythingJus is firmly positioned by the same Japanese superstars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, so Sasaki can greatly help him adapt to the major leagues.

Keuchel said, `I think the Dodgers have an advantage because of the Japanese players, including Otani and Yamamoto, and Darvish Yu, who threw the playoffs there in 2017"If you turn on the TV in the morning anywhere in Japan, the Dodgers game will be broadcast." Although we could have briefly talked about the Yankees and Mets, they are not the teams that mainly discussed Sasaki.

Roki Sasaki when he was with the Japanese national team at the WBC in March last year. AP Yonhap News

However, if Sasaki and the Dodgers have already agreed to a contract, as Keuchel said, this is a clear violation of the rules. In order for a Japanese professional baseball player to sign a contract with a major league club, he must step on the posting system unless he is a complete FA, and if we talked about the contract before that, it is a tamping. Of course, it is not unreasonable to say that Keuchel cannot be unaware of this, and that the Dodgers are the strongest candidates to take Sasaki.

He also praised Keuchel for Sasaki's pitching. "If anyone says he thinks he's going to do very well even in America, that gives me no doubt about it," he said. "He's very good at throwing 93-94 miles of fastballs. The splitter is hard to hit with the best off-speed pitches. His slider is about 80 points, but I like it so much that it's similar to Dylan Sheese."

Sasaki's average fastball speed this year is 96.8 miles, which Keuchel seems to be referring to the slowest pace. Keuchel gave less than 70 points to fastballs, 65 to 70 points for splitters, and 70 points for sliders based on Sasaki's pitch type evaluation (based on between 20 and 80 points).

Keuchel once played as a top major league starter, winning the Cy Young Award with the Houston Astros in 2015, but did not continue his heyday for a long time. This year, he pitched four games for the Milwaukee Brewers and was released before turning to the NPB.