The Minnesota Twins have been nearly silent so far this winter but have reportedly entered the sweepstakes for a hoped-for future superstar.
Minnesota has not moved the needle at all after its late-season collapse. Most of the headlines surrounding the team have to do with a prospective sale of the franchise.
However, according to Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune, the Twins are among at least six teams looking to sign Japanese sensation Rori Sasaki.
“We have interest,” Nightengale quoted Twins’ president of baseball operations Derek Falvey as saying. “If you’re in one of the rooms in this building and they don’t say that, that would be shocking to me. Obviously, we just want to understand what he’s looking for.”
Sasaki was posted by his current team, the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japanese Professional Baseball, this past week. The ensuing firestorm of speculation quickly engulfed several teams.
Last season in Japan, Sasaki posted a 10-5 record and a 2.35 ERA with 129 strikeouts and 32 walks over 111 innings.
Due to Sasaki still being only 23, there is a cap on the amount that he can initially make in Major League Baseball. Due to his not being 25 yet, his posting will not be able to set off the kind of bidding frenzy that led to the Los Angeles Dodgers signing Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a 12-year, $325 million contract.
Rather, Sasaki will have to settle for a similar below-market value contract that Shohei Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Angels at the age of 23 and then wait for prospective Major League Baseball riches on his next deal.
While the Dodgers and San Diego Padres remain the favorites to land Sasaki, his contract situation opens the door for smaller market teams to land him this winter.
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