All posts by Jim Allen

sports editor for a wire service in Tokyo
Baseball, Commentary, News, Paid Content

Roki Sasaki and the posting conundrum

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A single unbylined story on the Sponichi Annex website this week said phenomenal 21-year-old right-hander Roki Sasaki, Japan’s youngest perfect-game pitcher, has asked the Lotte Marines of Japan’s Pacific League to post him this month so he can play in MLB next season.

This news, attributed to “multiple sources at last week’s MLB winter meetings in Nashville, Tennessee,” set off a whirlwind of speculation about whether this would happen, with everyone and their sister speculating it could never happen before Sasaki turns 25 because his club “would not allow it.”

There are 339 million potential reasons to think Sasaki won’t be posted before he turns 25, when he’ll be able to negotiate as what MLB calls an “international free agent.” But those who believe it can’t happen because Lotte can simply refuse to let him go, don’t understand how Japanese contracts work, how they can differ in mind-boggling ways from those in MLB, and how Japan’s draft system gives top amateurs leverage they wouldn’t have in the States.

As to why he would want to, that is a question about values, and in a world where monetary figures are believed to trump everything else, Roki Sasaki might have a surprise for you.

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Baseball, Paid Content, Research

Questions about Yoshinobu Yamamoto

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Being at the winter meetings in Nashville allowed me to catch up with people I’d been seeing there since I first started going in 2014. With four Japanese pitchers moving to MLB this winter, there was a lot to talk about.

In the past, I’ve published injury and deactivation records of Japanese pitchers trying to play in MLB, but it has been a hectic offseason, and somehow I neglected that duty this year.

This brought a request from Eno Sarris of the Athletic::

“I’ve been furiously googling and going through your site and I can’t find anything on Yamamoto injuries — do you know off the top of your head what his major injuries were? Seems like he has a ton of innings every year except his first two?”

The answer to his injury history is that if there is one, it hasn’t been made public. The answer to his playing time requires an understanding of how NPB roster rules differ from those in MLB.

Yamamoto’s published injuries — as related to deactivations are listed below:

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