SF Giants rumors: team 'among top contenders' for Japanese ace free agent

There are not a ton of exciting free agent options for the SF Giants to improve their starting rotation, but they are listed as contenders for the 23-year-old free agent Roki Sasaki. However, Giants fans have seen this story far too often before.

After Blake Snell signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Corbin Burnes signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks, attention turned to the phenom out of Japan. Sasaki has a career ERA of 2.02 in the Japanese League and has struck out 524 batters in 414 and 2/3 innings pitched.

He has star potential with a high-velocity fastball and a great splitter. He would instantly bolster the Giants' rotation and give them a better chance to compete in a crowded NL West. According to one reporter, the Giants are among the top contenders for Sasaki.

The reporter also lists the Dodgers and San Diego Padres as top contenders for Saski. Neither of those teams come as a surprise given that they are both good teams who have the added draw of having great Japanese players on them already. The Dodgers obviously have Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and San Diego has Yu Darvish who supposedly was Sasaki's childhood hero.

Sasaki's agent has remained adamant that a team having or not having Japanese players will not impact his decision, but that seems like a pretty clear attempt to get more teams involved in a bidding war for Sasaki.

However, because Sasaki is subject to international bonus pool money restrictions, he is not going to receive a massive contract. That could be a good thing for a team like the Giants who usually get outbid for big free agents, but both the Giants and the Dodgers have the least bonus pool money available even though the different between the Giants and the top team is only roughly $2 million.

Sasaki is more likely to make his decision based on which organization will be the best fit rather than how much money they offer.

There is another interesting wrinkle in all of this pointed out by @giantsprospects on X who notes there could be a sign that the Giants are still in on Sasaki if they do not announce the signing of other international free agents on January 15th.

Despite all of this, it would still come as something of a shock if Sasaki chose the Giants over the Dodgers. It seems like almost every free agent signs with the Dodgers and Sasaki would just be another addition to the Evil Empire that has been created in Los Angeles.

The fact that the Giants are being mentioned as a contender at least gives some hope that the Giants could land him, but Giants fans are cynical after offseasons filled with "hope" and being "among the top contenders." The reality is that many Giants fans will not believe anything linking Sasaki to the Giants until a deal actually gets done.