Japanese pitcher's agent gives hope that SF Giants could land potential ace

While many SF Giants fans are holding out hope that the team will sign premier free agent starter Corbin Burnes, one overlooked starter could be Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki. Sasaki's agent's recent comments make San Francisco seem like a possibility.

The 23-year-old Sasaki has been a dominant pitcher in Japan. In his career he has a 2.02 ERA in 414 and 2/3 innings. In 2024 he had a 2.35 ERA in 111 innings pitched.

Heading into the offseason, the prevailing wisdom was that Sasaki would sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Given that they signed Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto last offseason, the thinking was that Sasaki would naturally want to join his countrymen who he was teammates with in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. The Dodgers certainly view landing Sasaki as a high priority.

However, Sasaki's agent, Joel Wolfe, made some interesting comments recently at the MLB Winter Meetings which can be viewed below:

SF Giants could be 'soft' landing spot for Roki Sasaki

If you cannot access the post, Wolfe said that given Sasaki's distaste for the media and the intensity of Japanese media, he may feel that a small or mid-market team could be a beneficial landing spot for Sasaki where the spotlight man not be as bright.

Of course, this is a smart thing for any agent to say. He wants as many teams bidding on his client as possible to try and raise the price on his services.

Yet, if it is true that Sasaki does not want to deal with the media frenzy of playing for a team like the Dodgers, the Giants could be a natural landing spot. Unlike LA, the Giants do not have a crazy stacked roster so there is no "championship or bust" mentality.

Sasaki would not be going to a trainwreck of a franchise, either. Adding Sasaki could be a key piece in the Giants trying to make it back to the postseason.

President of baseball operations Buster Posey has made it clear the Giants would love to sign Sasaki. He has noted how much upside the pitcher has and how, "it's fun to think about him at Oracle Park and pitching deep into a game late in the year with the place rocking."

One potential factor in all of this is the fact that the Giants have a depleted international bonus pool because they have signed several players who rejected qualifying offers the past two offseasons. Yet, Sasaki's agent Wolfe believes that is less of a factor compared to ending up with the right team.

It still seems highly likely that Sasaki will end up in the NL West. Alex Pavlovic has noted that even if it is not the Dodgers who land him, Yu Darvish, another Japanese player, is Sasaki's hero so he may jump at the chance to play alongside him.

Perhaps deep down Sasaki is a rebel, though. He knows everyone things he will join the Dodgers so just to spite the media that he disdains he may decide to join the Giants in an act of spite. Let's hope that's the case because the Giants could certainly use someone like him in their rotation.