Shohei Ohtani paired up with Sasaki at the World Baseball Classic (image credit: getty)
The Roki Sasaki sweepstakes is going to be exciting as all 30 teams have a fair shot at securing his services for the next two years. Because of his age, the 23-year-old Japanese pitcher has to be signed within the international bonus pool that limits clubs to a certain amount.
On Friday's episode of "The Baltimore Banner" podcast, Nippon Professional Baseball analyst Yuri Kurasawa said that if the same free agency rules apply to Sasaki as other players aged 25 or older, he would earn more than $300 million, perhaps even touching $400 million.
"Someone of his caliber deserves upwards of $300 million," Kawamura said (36:20). "If he's on the open market right now with no restrictions put on him he's probably a $400 million pitcher if we're being honest. But he's not going to be making that he's going to be making a couple million dollars actually so this is an absolute steal for any team."
