With baseball becoming a more global game, many hotbeds have sprouted out over the years. Places like Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and South Korea have all been sending their stars to the majors. However, no country has sent more big-name players to the MLB than Japan. From Ichiro Suzuki to Hideo Nomo to Shohei Ohtani. Because of all the talent that has come over, everyone is trying to find the next MLB superstar. Right now there is one standing out among the rest: pitcher Roki Sasaki.
Why Roki Sasaki Will Be The Next MLB Star
Sasaki is a 22-year-old pitcher who is entering his fourth season in the NPB for the Chiba Lotte Marines. Despite his young age, he’s been one of the most dominating pitchers in the NPB. Over his career, he has a 1.91 ERA with 465 strikeouts to 77 walks, and a 0.85 WHIP. This success has carried over to this season. So far in nine starts, he has an ERA of 1.96 with 70 strikeouts to 18 walks and a 0.972 WHIP.
Sasaki is a three-pitch pitcher, throwing a fastball, a splitter, and a slider. However, his slider isn’t a pitch he uses often, making many assume he’s a two-pitch pitcher. However, with how dominant those two pitches are it doesn’t matter. His fastball averages 99 mph, which would be second among MLB starters. It’s not just the speed of his fastball. It’s his command, which he’s used to get a 51% groundball rate. His splitter has been the putaway pitch throughout his career. Many have called it the best pitch in the world. It has a whiff rate of 51.5%, which is almost video game numbers. These two pitches have made his career and put him on the international radar.
Looking at his numbers they’re very similar to the numbers Yoshinobu Yamamoto had before he came over to the US. The main difference between him and Sasaki is his age. Yamamoto was 25 when he came to the US. Sasaki is most likely to be posted this upcoming off-season. This means he’ll be around three years younger than Yamamoto with similar numbers. With this in mind, it’s safe to assume, at minimum, he’ll get what Yamamoto got. Possibly even more, because with him being younger there’ll be fewer miles on his arm, putting him at a lower risk for injury. Sure there’ll be an adjustment period. But with his talent, it’s safe to assume he’ll be a star.
Thanks for reading! Credit for my feature image goes to The Asahi Shimbun. You can find more MLB content at Belly Up Sports and follow me on Twitter/X.
