NEW YORK — The Baltimore Orioles left about $2.1 million unspent from their 2024 international signing bonus pool allotment and the Los Angeles Dodgers around $1.9 million in a year there was speculation Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki would be available.
Major League Baseball’s international amateur signing period runs from Jan. 15 to Dec. 15, and Sasaki was not posted until Dec. 8. The 2025 signing period starts Jan. 15 and the 45-day window to reach a deal with the touted 23-year-old runs until Jan. 23, meaning he’ll sign within the 2025 period.
The 2025 bonus pools range from $7,555,500 for eight teams to $5,146,200 for the Dodgers and San Francisco. The Dodgers are among the many teams interested in Sasaki.
“He’s someone that is obviously a major priority for us, and we’re going to do whatever we can, and know that there are a lot of other teams that are going to do the exact same thing,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said during last week’s winter meetings.
San Diego, which has a $6,261,600 pool next year, is viewed as a favorite for Sasaki along with the Dodgers. The pitcher’s agent, Joel Wolfe, said he assumed Sasaki will “seriously consider” San Diego, where Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish is on the roster and Hideo Nomo is a special adviser.
“I feel like the organization is in a really good place with Sasaki,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said at the winter meetings. “If there’s an open market competition to be had, I feel like we’re in a good spot for a multitude of reasons. One, we’re in San Diego. We sell out our ballpark every night. We have a very competitive ballclub. It’s a chance for him to come in and create a legacy for himself to help win the first World Series.”
Teams usually spend their international signing bonus allotment on Latin American players.
Other teams with more than $500,000 unspent this year according to final figures were San Francisco ($767,500), Boston ($740,000), Colorado ($647,800) and the Chicago White Sox ($640,000).
Atlanta, the New York Yankees and Texas spent exactly their allotment. Teams are not allowed to go over.
Fourteen teams had under $100,000 unspent.
Players born from Sept. 1, 2006, through Aug. 31, 2007, were eligible to sign from Jan. 15 to Dec. 15 and signing bonuses of $10,000 and under didn’t count against a team’s allotment.