Japan's '165km fastball pitcher' Loki Sasaki (23) made a dramatic mark 6 days before the start of spring training with his team Chiba Lotte Marines.
On the 26th, major Japanese media outlets such as Nikkan Sports and Full Count reported, "Chiba Lotte and Sasaki have agreed to renew the annual salary contract for the 2024 season. This is the first time that a contract renewal has not been reached with spring camp approaching on February 1. Related reporters soon. “A conference will be held,” he said.
Chiba Lotte was also finally confirmed when it announced the news of its contract with Sasaki on its official SNS after media reports. As a result, the 12 Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) clubs will enter the 2024 season with all players signed. Sasaki was the only NPB player who did not sign a contract.
This winter, Japanese professional baseball experienced an unprecedented situation in which one team's ace, who was not a free agent, not only refused to renew his contract, but even withdrew from the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association (NPBPA). There were some cases where a late agreement was reached after spring camp due to friction with the club, but it was unusual for the agreement to be so strong that it even led to the withdrawal of the players' association.
The conflict between his team, Chiba Lotte, began when Sasaki demanded early entry into the Major League (ML) after the end of the 2023 season. Sasaki, who was selected by Chiba Lotte in the first round of the 2019 Japanese professional baseball rookie draft, is in his 6th year. Unlike the KBO League, where only players who have spent 7 seasons in the first team based on the number of registration days can apply for posting in overseas leagues, in NPB, even if they do not complete a certain number of years, they can advance overseas through the posting system with the consent of the club. Sasaki wanted to take advantage of this and advance to the MLB early.
The unprecedented boom in Japanese pitching that has recently taken the Major League by storm also appears to have stimulated Sasaki's desire for a challenge. First, Shohei Otani (30), known as the world's best baseball player, signed a 10-year free agent contract worth $700 million (approximately KRW 936.6 billion) with the LA Dodgers, the largest in North American professional sports history. Subsequently, Yoshinobu Yamamoto (26), Sasaki's competitor and currently the best pitcher in NPB, made a huge splash by signing a 12-year contract worth $325 million (approximately KRW 434.9 billion) with the LA Dodgers.
Not only the two people who were called the biggest players, but also all the players who attempted to play in the major leagues successfully received contracts. NPB's youngest closer, Yuki Matsui (29), who achieved 200 saves, successfully signed a five-year contract worth up to $33.6 million (about 45 billion won) with the San Diego Padres through the posting system. Japanese national team left-hander Shota Imanaga (31) also signed a contract with the Chicago Cubs with a guaranteed four-year contract worth $53 million (approximately KRW 70.9 billion) that could be extended up to a maximum of 5 years and $80 million (approximately KRW 107 billion). Naoyuki Uwasawa, who was the only one who did not receive a major league contract, also signed a one-year minor league contract worth $250,000 (about 300 million won), but not the minimum annual salary of $740,000 (about 1 billion won) when promoted to the big league. He saved face with an escalator contract worth up to $3.245 million (about 4.3 billion won).
Sasaki is also evaluated as a mega-pitcher who could easily win a contract worth more than $100 million if he heads to the major leagues right away. Sasaki is a fastball right-handed pitcher who throws fastballs with an average speed of 159 km/h, a fast ball of up to 165 km/h, and a high-speed forkball of up to 149 km/h. In his professional career, he recorded 19 wins, 10 losses, 283⅔ innings, and 376 strikeouts in 46 professional games.
The game that made his name most widely known to the world of baseball was the perfect game he played in the regular season home game against the Orix Buffaloes on April 10, 2022. At that time, Sasaki made new history in NPB and the world of baseball by striking out 19 batters in 9 innings without allowing any hits or walks.
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